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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


YOUNG  FRANCE 
AND  NEW  AMERICA 


BY     THE    SAME    AUTHOR 

La  Yougoslavie  (The  Southern  Slavs) 

—  Payot,  Paris 

GBAMMAIBE  ELEMENTAIBE  DE  LA  LANGUE  SEBBE 

—  Delagrave,  Pa/iis 

(in  collaboration  with  A.  Ouyevitch) 

iMAiGiN AIRES,  poems          —  Edition  romane,  Paris 

TRANSLATIONS 

PSYCHOLOGIE     ET     SOCIOLO-" 

QIE,  by  Professor  J.  M. 
Baldwin 

Elements   de  Psycho-So- 
CIOLOGIE,     by     Professor 
Ellwood 

'Giard  et  Brieve,  Paris 

L'Unite   Yougoslave,   manifeste   de   la   jennesse 
serbe,  create  et  Slovene  reunie        —  Plon,  Paris 

Judith,  trag^die,  by  F.  Hebbel 

—  Nouvelle  Revue  FranQaise,  Paris 

(in  collaboration  with  G.  Gallimard) 

YOUNG  FRANCE 
AND  NEW  AMERICA 


BY 

PIERRE  DE  LANUX 


NEW  YORK 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1917 

All  rights  reserved 


COPTEIGHT,    1917, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  Novemlber,   1917. 


TO 

PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  GARDNER  HALE 

AND  TO 

MARICE  RUTLEDGE  HALE 

FOR  MANY  REASONS,  THIS  BOOK 
IS  DEDICATED 


171S6C8 


FOREWORD 

These  are  the  reflections  of  a  Frenchman  who  spent 
the  year  1917  in  America.  They  deal  with  the 
present  events  and  those  from  the  near  past,  but 
their  expression  is  first  inspired  by  the  thought  of 
the  near  future,  that  is  to  say,  the  period  that  will 
begin  when  this  war  ends.  My  purpose  was  to 
define  and  to  sum  up  the  possibilities  which 
Franco-American  relations  will  offer  tomorrow,  as 
well  on  intellectual  as  on  concrete  grounds. 

This  subject  would  be  much  too  wide  for  one 
man  and  for  one  book,  but  we  shall  concentrate  on 
the  results  of  co-operation  between  elements  of  the 
younger  generation  of  both  countries.  The  present 
book  is  written  for  the  young  men  and  women  of 
America  who  are  interested  in  the  present  life  of 
France. 

Those  who  know  well  my  country,  having  seen 
her  and  helped  her  during  the  present  trial,  will 
find  here  some  facts  which  are  already  familiar  to 
them,  and  I  fear  that  they  will  resent  my  pretension 


viii  FOREWORD 

to  teach  them  what  they  know  better  than  I  do  my- 
self. Other  readers  will  charge  me  with  excessive 
optimism  or  with  "youthful"  severity  for  the  gen- 
eration that  preceded  mine.  It  may  be  that  they 
are  right;  it  may  be  also  that  they  lack  the  faith  and 
vision  that  is  in  many  of  us. 

I  wish  that,  in  order  to  face  a  state  of  things 
which  is  quite  new,  one  could  bring  a  quite  new 
attitude  of  judgment.  This  is  precisely  what  may 
be  expected  from  Americans,  as  it  is  one  of  their 
best  national  qualities.  We  live  in  a  time  when  the 
fruits  of  thought  are  ripening  with  strange  and 
terrible  rapidity,  and  many  Utopias  of  yesterday 
have  already  passed  to  the  rank  of  the  common- 
place. Let  us,  therefore,  deal  with  today's  Utopia 
with  the  respect  that  is  owed  to  the  commonplace  of 
tomorrow.  .  .  . 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  about  Franco- 
American  relationships.  Since  one  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  years,  many  great  and  less  great  minds 
have  expressed  concordant  views  on  that  subject. 
Common  interpretation  of  republican  principles, 
love  for  country  and  for  freedom,  joined  to  that 
idealist  and  generalizing  tendency  that  made  our 
two  nations  express  their  Declarations  in  terms  that 
are  valuable,  not  for  one  country  alone,  but  for  the 
whole  world,  from  the  very  beginning  of  our  con- 


FOREWORD  ix 

temporary  history — how  often  did  historians  and 
orators  dwell  on  that  theme,  developing  it  with 
more  eloquence  than  I  could  bring  here ! 

But  a  storm  has  shaken  all  the  values  of  the  earth. 
Those  which  will  be  found  intact,  after  the  crisis  is 
over,  one  might  well  call  them  eternal.  The  friend- 
ship of  the  two  Republics  is  one  of  them.  And  the 
values  which  will  be  bom  from  the  present  over- 
dirowing,  we  have  to  make  clear  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  confront  them  with  our  past,  so  as  to  know 
what  remains.  Among  these  new  values,  and  in  the 
first  rank,  there  is  the  realization  of  common  stan- 
dards in  life,  the  sense  of  common  task  and  com- 
mon responsibilities,  and,  above  all,  the  value  of 
mutual  knowledge  between  the  youth  of  France  and 
America.  For,  after  all  our  old  reasons  for  mu- 
tual understanding,  there  exist  now  new  reasons, 
and  indeed,  much  more  powerful  ones,  which  I 
shall  try  to  set  forth  here. 

Let  me  first  extend  my  thanks  to  all  those  who 
helped  me  in  my  task  by  their  generous  encourage- 
ments, and  especially  mention  the  reviews  which 
published  some  parts  of  the  present  work:  The 
Nevj  Republic,  The  New  France,  The  Dial,  The 
Nation,  etc.  And  let  me  express  my  gratefulness 
to  the  authors  of  remarkable  translations  from 
French  writers  whom  I  quoted  in  this  book:  to  Miss 


X  FOREWORD 

Virginia  Hale,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Eyre,  to  Mr. 
Joyce  Kilmer,  to  Mr.  Deems  Taylor,  and  to  Dr. 
Ernest  Hart,  the  last  named  having  translated  the 
poems  which  occur  in  the  body  of  the  section  on 
Verhaeren. 

P.  L. 
New  York,  October,  1917. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword vii 

I 

Formation  of  the  Present  French  Generation      1 

Rapid  history  of  ten  years.  Awakening  to  interna- 
tional problems.  Hard  training  to  civic  and  national 
life.  Revival  in  physical  life.  Foreign  influences.  Also 
revival  of  tradition.  The  spirit  of  1914.  Who  gave  the 
best  expression  of  it.  The  war.  The  younger  elements 
and  what  they  bring. 

II 

About  America  in  1917 35 

The  capital  fact  of  the  present  evolution.  Its  prophets. 
America's  work  during  the  first  part  of  the  war.  Con- 
ditions of  international  leadership.  Perils  of  '"Know- 
nothingism."  The  value  of  common  experience.  The 
value  of  common  purpose.  War  and  Democracy.  The 
pacifists  from  the  trenches.  Our  "prussianization." 
Common  sense  and  our  aims. 

Ill 

Promises  of  Concrete  Co-operation     ....     63 

New  conditions  of  work  in  Europe,  nearer  to  the 
American  conditions,  because  of  the  scarcity  of  men  and 
the  necessity  of  rapid  reconstruction.  American  methods 
to  be  brought.  The  new  spirit  of  economic  activity  in 
France.  A  writer  on  French  labour.  An  instance  of 
common  task:  co-operation  in  tlie  countries  which  are 
economically  backward,  but  jealous  of  national  independ- 
ence, and  will  welcome  the  Franco-American  enterprises. 


CONTENTS 

IV  PACE 

Literary  Interchange 91 

Forms  of  influence.  Is  external  influence  to  be  wel- 
come? American  writers  who  are  known  in  France. 
About  French  criticism.  Translations  of  literature. 
Educational  exchanges.  The  philosophers.  The  literary 
treasury  of  contemporary  France.  Our  masters  and  el- 
ders. Recent  tendencies.  Emile  Verhaeren's  interna- 
tional value.  The  new  poets  of  France:  More  children 
of  Walt  Whitman.  Schools,  groups  and  critics.  The 
Reviews.     War  poems.    And  then? 

Music  in  France. 

V 
Conclusions 142 

History  of  mutual  knowledge.  False  ideas  about  each 
other.  Principle  of  our  exchanges.  France's  experience 
and  America's  methods.  Common  task  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  peace.  The  two  nations  who  did  most  work  un- 
selfishly for  the  world.  Psychology  of  our  understanding. 
Individual  comradeship  as  a  basis  for  our  relations.  Re- 
sponsibilities. 

Index  of  Proper  Names  Cited 151 


YOUNG  FRANCE 
AND  NEW  AMERICA 


YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW 
AMERICA 


FORMATION  OF  THE  PRESEINT  FRENCH 
GENERATION 

Rapid  historj-  of  ten  years.  Awakening  to  international 
problems.  Hard  training  to  civic  and  national  life.  Revival 
in  physical  life.  Foreign  influences.  Also  revival  of  tradition. 
The  spirit  of  1914-.  Who  gave  the  best  expression  of  it.  The 
war.     The  younger  elements  and  what  they  bring. 

"L'angoisse  est  necessaire  aux  races  qui  sont  fortes 
Et  pour  grandir  encore,  il  leur  faut  le  danger." 

— EaiiLE  Veehaehex. 

This  stuoy,  or  rather  this  rapid  retrospective 
glance,  will  not  be  given  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
historian.  It  will  be  just  material  for  History  to 
come,  and  personal  testimony  rather  than  impartial 
definitions.  Many  records  like  this  will  have  to 
be  added  in  order  to  form  even  a  sketch  of  the 
recent  past  that  will  not  be  too  incomplete.  I  shall 
simply  tell  my  national  experience  to  my  comrades 
from  the  other  side. 


2     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

It  was  a  wonderful  advantage  to  me  to  live  in 
contact  with  the  best  among  the  younger  men  and 
women.  They  were  writers,  teachers,  engineers  or 
artists,  belonging  to  many  classes  and  opinions; 
they  were  also  the  labourers  and  the  country  peo- 
ple with  whom  I  lived  when  serving  as  a  soldier. 
To  all  of  them  I  am  indebted  for  what  I  am  going 
to  tell  about  this  present  generation.  So,  if  there 
is  beauty  in  the  spectacle  which  they  give,  and 
which  I  shall  here  describe,  they  deserve  all  ad- 
miration for  it. 

Our  parents  gave  us,  as  usually  happens,  some 
splendid  examples  to  follow,  and,  also,  some  ven- 
erable standards  to  discard.  As  usually  happens, 
we  discovered  the  latter  before  we  acknowledged 
the  good  to  be  kept.  Or  rather,  the  good  was  laid 
in  us  without  our  being  aware  of  it,  and  is  probably 
greater  than  our  pride  yet  knows. 

They  were  the  children  of  1870.  They  had  been 
brought  up  in  France's  darkest  days,  when  defeat, 
mutilation  and  isolation  followed  the  factitious 
prosperity  of  our  Second  Empire.  At  that  time 
France  was  absolutely  alone ;  so  they  took  the  habit, 
for  twenty  years,  of  reasoning  strictly  on  our  forces, 
our  fate,  practically  ignoring  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Our  generation,  from  our  younger  years  on,  was 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  3 

used  to  go  back  for  its  models  to  other  times  than 
the  period  which  extends  from  1870  to  1890.     We 
differed  in  our  models,  but  we  agreed  to  dislike 
that  period.     It  meant  to  us  bad  taste,  prejudices, 
moral  fears,  limited  ideas,  ugly  fashions,  Victori- 
anism  without  even  prestige,  people  being  hypno- 
tized by  their  recent  defeat  and  spending  their 
forces  in  internal  disputes  which  did  not  offer  the 
slightest  interest  to  us.     We  were  surprised  by  the 
obstinate,  obtrusive,  negative  hostilities  of  some  na- 
tionalists against  the  foreigners,  of  free  thinkers 
against  the  priests,  of  all  creeds  against  each  other. 
We  resented  severely  that  they  had  not  under- 
stood their  great  XlXth  century  (of  course  it  was 
easier  to  us),  and  that  they  could  not  digest  it. 
Liberty,    Equality    and    Fraternity    were    written 
everywhere,  even  on  prison  doors,  but  we  were  irri- 
tated not  to  find  them  in  tlie  acts  of  living  persons. 
Big  things  were  done  by  men  of  exception,  against 
the  others  and  without  their  help.     I  believe  that 
this  was  a  period  of  transition  and  hesitation — not 
of  affirmation.     A  period  when  old  and  new  stan- 
dards were  fighting  each  other  unf ruitfully,  because 
men  did  not  perceive  the  beauty  and  full  meaning  of 
that  conflict  itself,  and  were  not  used  to  their  own 
mental  emancipation.     They  spent  their  force  for 
small  results  when  immense  things  were  at  stake, 


4     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

and  they  followed  small  men  in  a  time  when  great 
geniuses  were  living.  What  they  took  seriously 
seemed  to  us  to  be  obsolete;  what  we  worshipped 
made  them  smile.  We  envied  a  little  their  virtues, 
and  not  at  all  their  vices.  And  we  were  totally 
disgusted  by  the  lack  of  moral  independence  of 
their  lives.  They  said  "realism"  when  they  meant 
"ugliness,"  and  that  single  feature  would  be 
enough  to  separate  them  from  us.  They  lied  to 
themselves  in  their  tastes,  in  their  passions,  in  their 
words.     They  were  deeply  sunk  in  lie. 

I  seem  to  speak  resentfully,  but  I  cannot  forget 
the  old  generals  who  dressed  our  young  men  in  red 
trousers  to  send  them  to  a  modem  war.  The  ruling 
class  of  1870-1900  was  more  or  less  like  these 
brave  chiefs.  We  felt  that  such  a  world  was  wait- 
ing for  new  men.  Now,  we  know  that  we  were 
right.  But,  at  the  same  time,  we  can  explain  why 
our  elders  were  such;  and  we  realize,  too,  that  the 
new  men  are  not  us,  but  the  younger  ones — who 
know  much  that  we  ignore. 

This  is  how  things  appeared  when  we  were  about 
18.  All  national  danger  seemed  remote  and  ab- 
stract. There  had  been  a  bitter  injustice  com- 
mitted against  us  in  1870,  when  Germany  had  torn 
Alsace-Lorraine  away  from  us,  and  we  kept  the  hope 
that  this  would  be  readjusted  some  time.     But  few 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  5 

expected  that  readjustment  from  a  war,  since  war 
had  proved  to  mean  injustice.     So  we  believed  that 
other  people  expected  nothing  from  war.     And  we 
came  to  lose  the  belief  in  the  possibility  of  war  itself. 
After  the  generation  which  had  suffered  from  the 
ordeal  of  '71,  people  had  grown  to  be  compara- 
tively indifferent  to  the  various  foreign  problems 
and  conflicts  which  did  not  concern  France  immedi- 
ately, because  they  believed  that  France  could  not 
be  involved  against  her  will  in  an  armed  conflict. 
And  around  us  were  flourishing  in  full  prosperity 
the  ideas  of  the  future,  great  social  schemes,  new 
artistic  impulses,  preceding  the  time  when  the  uni- 
verse would  be  ready  to  receive  them,  preceding 
the  actual  conditions,  and  Utopian  only  because  of 
that.     We  were  enthusiastic  about  tliem,  still  some- 
thing was  warning  us  that  instead  of  solving  the  old 
problems  of  race,   nationality,   domination,  they 
simply  neglected  them,  or  rather  solved  them  ab- 
stractly, for  the  satisfaction  of  a  few  intelligences. 
In  fact,  the  problems  remained  open.     Endeavours 
to  prevent  future  wars  met  with  scepticism,  or  sank 
into  Utopian  schemes.     We  had  a  feeling  that  a 
greater  light,  all  possible  light,  indeed,  ought  to 
have  been  brought  on  the  direct  cause  and  risks  of 
European  conflicts,  which  were  obscure  to  many.^ 
i"Thus  the  men  in  Europe  who  can  really  claim  to  have 


6     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

France  was  preparing  to  show  the  way,  once  more, 
and  we  were  passionately  learning  our  business  of 
world-pioneers.  We  were  in  great,  passionate, 
earnest  hesitations.  We  admired,  in  that  time,  An- 
atole  France  and  we  admired  Barres.  I  name  these 
two  personifications  of  reformist  and  nationalistic 
spirit,  although,  of  course,  for  other  young  men  the 
same  tendencies  took  other  names.  Barres  told  us 
of  the  Earth  and  of  the  Dead,  with  arguments  which 
appealed  to  our  deepest,  truest  conservative  in- 
stincts. And  Anatole  France,  smiling,  said: 
"What  hath  been  written  by  the  dead  shall  be  can- 
celled by  the  living;  otherwise  the  will  of  those  who 
are  no  more  would  impose  itself  upon  those  who  are 
still,  and  the  dead  would  be  the  living,  and  the  living 
would  be  the  dead." — And  we  knew  that  both  were 
true. 

This  antagonism  could  be  felt  in  the  long  quarrel 
about  the  programs  of  teaching.     The  question  of 

worked  for  peace  are  not  those  who  wanted  to  disarm  their 
own  country,  to  keep  it  neutral  under  all  circumstances.  .  .  . 
The  true  peacemakers  were  those  who  grasped  the  real  strug- 
gle between  the  Entente  and  the  Alliance,  and  proposed  con- 
crete improvements  in  the  diplomacy  about  Africa,  Asia  Minor, 
and  the  Far  East.  The  men  who  had  better  solutions  of  the 
Moroccan,  Congo,  and  Balkan  problems  were  the  ones  who 
can  claim  now  to  have  done  their  share  of  thinking  for  civiliza- 
tion. .  .  .  Those  who  saw  the  source  of  the  friction  and  tried 
to  remedy  it  were  the  real  internationalists."  (Walter  Lipp- 
mann — The  Stakes  of  Diplomacy.) 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  7 

the  programs  in  the  Universities,  which  was  more 
of  a  political  dispute  for  the  men  who  fixed  them, 
was,  for  us,  a  question  of  choosing  the  knowledge 
that  would  help  us  to  the  kind  of  life  we  wanted  to 
live.     And  what  was  that  life? 

This  was  being  decided,  little  by  little,  as  the 
result  of  many  influences.  (Certainly  more  varied 
influences  than  any  other  generation  had  received 
before.)  They  came  through  new  channels.  We 
practised  more  physical  life  than  our  fathers,  and 
that  influenced  our  ways  of  living.  (I  shall  dwell 
again  on  this  aspect  of  our  formation.)  We  trav- 
elled more.  If  I  take  my  six  best  friends  as  exam- 
ples, I  find  that  one  has  been  in  Germany  and 
Tunisia,  another  in  Russia  and  in  Greece;  the  third 
through  Argentina,  Paraguay  and  Brazil;  the  fourth 
in  California  and  Russia;  the  fifth  in  England,  Italy, 
Russia  and  North  America;  the  sixth  in  Algeria, 
Spain  and  Asia  Minor;  and  I  had,  myself,  at  27, 
visited  thirteen  nations  in  Europe.  Three  other 
friends  of  mine,  being  about  25,  have  founded  a 
vast  and  prosperous  French  enterprise  in  British 
Columbia,  after  having  been  first  around  the  world. 

This  was  together  the  consequence  and  cause  of 
our  learning  foreign  languages  much  more  than  it 
had  been  done  before.     The  time  we  spent  in  that 


8     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

work,  however  imperfect  the  knowledge  that  we 
might  reach,  is  a  time  we  never  regret.  It  opened 
not  only  more  possibilities  for  travelling,  for  easier 
business,  direct  meeting  of  the  people,  but  it  gave  us 
the  key  to  whole  literatures,  which,  in  their  turn, 
played  a  decisive  part  in  our  intellectual  formation. 
At  least  foreign  language  brought  understanding  of 
the  foreign  spirit,  a  sense  of  what  is  relative  and 
what  absolute  in  expression,  and  new  reasons  to  love 
our  own  language. 

Some  foreign  works  impressed  us  greatly.  Dos- 
toievsky after  Tolstoi,  Kipling  after  Dickens,  Whit- 
man after  E.  A.  Poe,  meant  a  great  deal,  not  only  to 
writers,  but  to  readers  of  any  class  or  purpose. 
(How  many  young  men  did  I  find  in  the  French  Am- 
bulance Service,  during  this  war,  in  Belgium  or  in 
Macedonia,  who  were  reading  Walt  Whitman's 
"Wound  Dresser,"  from  the  "Drum  Taps"!) 

All  this  was  preparing  the  notion  of  universal  con- 
cern, which  is  so  strong  now  in  all  of  us.  We  got 
trained  to  think  beyond  the  frontiers.  What  I 
called  the  disciples  of  Anatole  France,  looked  there 
mostly  for  foreign  culture.  The  disciples  of 
Barre's  looked  there  for  danger.  Elder  people, 
apart  from  few  exceptions,  spoke  of  danger  and  of 
culture,  but  did  not  look  there  at  all.  They  were 
negative;  they  were  just  critical;  they  always  knew 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  9 

the  reasons  against  doing  things;  they  were  im- 
mensely far  from  America,  whom  they  ignored  and 
feared.  They  might  have  prevented  this  war, 
which  from  any  standpoint  is  a  failure,  for  all  poli- 
cies which  led  to  it.  They  called  it,  afterwards,  in- 
evitable. But  it  was  not.  And  as  our  generation 
is  dying  in  it,  it  has  a  certain  right  to  state  how 
things  did  happen. 

It  was  in  1905  that  our  hard  training  to  civic  and 
national  life  began,  with  our  awakening  to  danger, 
and  to  the  great  fact  that,  now,  everybody  is  con- 
cerned with  everything  that  happens  in  the  world. 
I  insist  upon  this,  because  this  explains  all:  our  atti- 
tude before  the  war,  our  stand  in  the  war,  and  our 
will  after  the  war. 

In  1904-5,  came  the  Russo-Japanese  conflict. 
Most  of  us  did  not  feel  that  we  were  very  strongly 
affected  by  it.  Still  we  were.  As  soon  as  our 
Russian  ally  had  proved  to  be  weaker,  Germany 
started  her  aggressive  policy  in  the  Moroccan  ques- 
tion. That  year  Charles  Peguy  published  his 
"cahier,"  Notre  Patrie,  about  that  precise  week,  that 
very  day  when  we  realized  the  presence  of  danger: 
"As  every  one,  I  had  come  back  to  Paris  at  9  in  the 
morning;  as  every  one,  that  is  to  say,  as  about  eight 
or  nine  hundred  persons,  I  knew  at  half  past  eleven 


10     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

that  a  new  period  had  just  begun  in  the  history  of  my 
own  life,  in  the  history  of  this  country,  and  certainly 
in  the  history  of  the  world."  .  .  .  "Every  one,  at 
the  same  time,  knew  that  the  menace  of  a  German  in- 
vasion was  present,  that  it  was  there,  that  it  was 
really  imminent." 

"It  was  not  a  news  like  ordinary  news — it  went 
from  one  man  to  another  like  a  knowledge  from 
anterior  life,  a  recognition  of  anterior  certitude. 
Indeed,  each  of  us  did  find  in  himself  the  recog- 
nition total,  immediate,  ready,  immobile — of  this 
menace  which  was  present.  .  .  .  Each  man  recog- 
nized in  himself,  as  if  it  were  familiar  and  well- 
known,  this  deep  voice,  this  voice  from  inside,  this 
voice  of  long-buried  memory." 

Later,  Germany  provoked  brutal  incidents  in 
Alsace,  which  gave  opportunity  to  notice  that  the 
Reichstag,  representing  the  German  people,  had  no 
authority  whatever  to  disapprove  a  government 
which  had  the  support  of  the  Emperor.  In  1908 
came  the  annexation  of  Bosnia  by  Austria,  against 
the  will  of  the  Serbian  population,  and  this  was  the 
direct  source  of  the  Balkan  trouble  and  of  the 
European  war.  Now  is  it  not  the  very  image  of  our 
subject  and  a  symbol  of  our  times:  that  in  order  to 
write,  in  America,  about  France,  I  am  obliged  to 
mention  the  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  to  insist  upon 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  11 

it?  I  was  a  soldier  at  that  time,  and  I  had  been  in 
Bosnia  before.  I  remember  my  comrades  asking 
me  to  explain  what  was  the  connection  between  that 
Turkish  province  and  their  possible  going  to  battle 
against  the  Prussians?  Many  of  them  did  not  be- 
lieve that  such  a  connection  existed. 

In  1911  Germany  sent  a  warship  to  the  Moroccan 
coast.  I  remember  the  feeling  we  had,  of  air  being 
made  irrespirable  by  that  nation.  We  had  to  come, 
little  by  little,  in  spite  of  ourselves,  to  adopt  tlie  feel- 
ings and  opinions  of  our  fathers  towards  the  Prus- 
sians. We  discovered  our  fatliers  to  be  right,  by 
ourselves.  We  did  not  inherit  the  idea  of  revenge, 
as  the  Germans  always  pretended.  We  thought  it, 
for  a  time,  to  be  the  remotest  possible  illusion.  (In 
1899,  at  the  time  of  the  Boer  war  and  after  the 
Fashoda  incidents,  England  was  a  hundred  times 
more  unpopular  than  Germany  in  France,  among  the 
young.)  Germany  having  chosen  the  "big  stick" 
policy,  we  rediscovered,  one  by  one,  the  elements  of 
old  hostilities.  The  man  from  the  people  who  had 
been  anti-militaristic  for  a  time  and  who  loved 
his  work  and  peace,  got  more  and  more  impatient, 
and  realized  that  in  Europe  a  group  of  powers  was 
acting  systematically  against  us  when  nothing  was  to 
fear  from  us.  For  tlie  people  of  France  were  still 
ready  to  do  many  new  foolish  things,  but  could 


12     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

never,  never  have  been  driven  into  an  aggressive 
war.  We  felt  this  drawback  to  the  maintenance  of 
peace.  But  we  were  decided,  and  our  friends  and 
allies  with  us,  to  maintain  peace  in  spite  of  the 
drawback. 

In  1912  the  Balkan  war  broke  out.  Four  small 
nations,  in  order  to  make  their  brothers  free  from 
Turkish  yoke,  mobilized.  The  European  govern- 
ments refused  to  believe  in  a  possible  war,  and  when 
it  broke  out  they  believed  in  the  victory  of  the  Turks. 
When  the  Turks  were  defeated  these  governments 
did  not  know  how  to  prevent  discord  from  arising 
among  the  victors,  and  when  this  brought  a  second 
war,  in  1913,  they  could  see  that  Austria  and  Ger- 
many were  responsible  for  it,  and  a  splendid  na- 
tional insurrection  ended  pitifully  in  a  slaughter 
of  allies  because  the  Central  Powers  wanted  the 
weakening  of  Serbia  and  the  rupture  of  the  Balkan 
league. 

Even  during  these  Balkan  wars,  many  said  in 
France,  "Let  those  people  fight  if  they  want  to.  We 
have  nothing  to  do  with  Balkanic  aspirations." 
Still,  Serbian  aspirations  to  independence  meant  the 
end  of  the  German  ambition  in  "Mittel-Europa." 
Some  of  us  had  a  notion  of  that.  So,  at  the  news  of 
mobilization,   in   October,    1912,   I   had   gone   to 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  13 

Serbia,  and  managed  to  see  this  crisis  through.  I 
saw  after  a  few  weeks,  as  plainly  as  any  man  could 
have  done  in  my  place,  that  the  true  enemy  of  Bal- 
kanic  freedom  and  peace  was  not  only  Turkey,  but 
Austria,  and  that  the  victories  over  the  Turks  were 
already  victories  over  the  Germans;  and  that  the 
seed  of  terrible  European  troubles  was  in  the  op- 
pression of  the  Southern  Slavs  by  the  Austrians. 
One  had  but  to  be  there  and  talk  with  the  people,  to 
bring  back  invaluable  observations.  When  I  did 
so,  competent  people  did  not  refuse  to  believe  me, 
but  they  considered  tliat  the  matter  was  not  impor- 
tant enough  to  pay  much  attention  to  it. 

My  deep  conviction  is  that  the  peril  could  have 
been  checked  in  its  beginning,  in  1913,  if  we  all  had 
had  sufficient  information  and  a  strong  feeling  that 
we  were  all  threatened  by  it.  That  is  why  I  believe 
that  the  ignorance  and  indifference  of  the  world  is 
the  greatest,  worst  enemy  of  mankind  and  of  peace. 
And,  above  all,  this  war  has  to  wipe  out  interna- 
tional "know-nothingism." 

On  the  28th  of  June,  1914,  the  Austrian  Crown 
prince  was  killed  by  a  Bosnian  fanatic. 

On  the  3rd  of  August,  1914,  as  a  consequence, 
Germany  declared  war  upon  France. 

But  those  ten  years  had  prepared  us  for  "I'Union 


14     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Sacree."     It  was  a  part  of  our  equipment  for  mo- 
bilization.    And  the  Kaiser  did  not  know  it.  .  .  . 

I  come  now  to  a  most  difficult  part  of  my  task, 
which  is  to  give  the  true  portrait  of  the  young  man  of 
France  at  the  eve  of  the  war — his  actions  in  the  war 
have  been  but  a  consequence  of  those  morals  of  his, 
that  were  moulded  before.  We  have  seen  what  had 
influenced  him.  What  was  the  result  of  it  all? 
Which  ethics  were  ours  in  1914? 

I  have  a  very  high  idea  of  them — of  course,  since 
they  were  mine,  but  I  begin  to  believe  that  there  is 
something  even  finer,  and  it  is  the  ethics  of  the 
young  men  who  are  now  twenty  and  who  had  their 
moral  formation  during  the  war. 

We  had,  as  has  been  said,  to  combine  and  recon- 
cile the  conservative  impulses,  the  impulses  for 
reformation,  in  a  peculiar  national  situation,  and 
to  add  to  this  the  result  of  our  own  moral  experi- 
ences, which  were  rather  rich  and  bold.  (Some- 
times innovation  had  led  to  an  unexpected  form  of 
tradition.  Sport  was  a  true  returning  to  old 
French  sixteenth  century  habits.) 

We  gave  to  personal  freedom  and  responsibility, 
not  to  mention  sincerity  to  oneself,  an  importance 
which  brought  us  nearer  to  American  standards  than 
you  believe.     We  felt  immense,  unlimited  admira- 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  15 

tion  and  reverence  for  our  masters,  who  were  those 
exceptions  among  our  elders.  They  were  the  intel- 
ligent and  the  strong,  and  the  loving,  wherever  we 
could  find  them. 

I  do  not  speak  now  of  literary  mastership ;  but  of 
a  vital  one.  The  thinkers  whom  we  followed  had 
come  to  an  ethical,  often  to  a  political  and  re- 
ligious attitude,  which  was  made  of  affirmation. 
Even  those  who  were  free  from  political  entangle- 
ments, were  deeply  and  constantly  affected  by  the 
national  life.  (How  far  from  the  misanthropic, 
nonchalant  artists  of  1890!)  None  were  indiffer- 
ent to  collective  problems.  The  most  skeptical, 
apparently,  were  not  the  least  passionate.  All  had 
an  intei-pretation  of  moral  life,  to  propose.  And 
among  them  we  chose,  and  about  them  we  earnestly 
discussed  witliin  ourselves  and  with  each  other. 

One  man  we  were  reading  with  more  and  more 
attention,  among  those  elders  of  exception.  Charles 
Peguy  had  been  for  16  years  the  editor  of  Les 
Cahiers  de  la  Quinzaine,  a  periodical  which  pub- 
lished literary,  political,  documentary  works,  as 
separate  books.  (There  appeared  for  the  first  time 
the  works  of  Romain  Rolland,  including  the  famous 
Beethoven,  and  the  long  serial  of  Jean  Christophe.) 

Peguy  belonged  to  old  French  soil.  His  parents 
were  peasants.     He  had  the  strong  culture  from  the 


16     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Ecole  Normale,  but  his  faithfulness  to  the  earth  of 
his  ancestors  was  like  France's  herself.  He  had 
clear,  penetrating  views,  was  hard  to  his  opponents, 
and  hard  to  his  friends.  He  described  once,  with 
implacable  accurateness,  the  contradictory  aspects 
of  Jaures,  the  great  socialist  leader,  his  power  and 
also  his  weakness.  He  was  absolutely  honest,  to  his 
party,  to  his  readers,  to  himself.  When  we  read  his 
books  we  learnt  what  civic  morals  meant.  They 
are  usually  the  most  corrupt  (because  treason  and 
capitulation  are  there  of  little  consequence)  and 
they  ought  to  be  the  purest  (because  they  are  simple, 
without  obscure  nuances,  and  honesty  almost  suf- 
fices.) But  Peguy  brought  something  more  than 
honesty.  He  revealed  to  us  a  mystical  side  of  pol- 
itics. 

"We  turn  then  to  the  young  people  ...  we  can 
only  say  to  them:  Take  care.  You  look  upon  us 
as  back  numbers.  This  is  good, — but  be  careful. 
When  you  speak  lightly,  when  you  treat  the  Repub- 
lic lightly,  so  lightly,  you  run  the  risk  not  only  of 
being  unjust  (which  is,  perhaps,  nothing  in  your 
system,  at  least,  so  you  say,  but  which  in  our  system 
is  serious,  and,  according  to  our  ideas,  a  good  deal) . 
You  risk  more,  in  your  system  even,  in  your  ideas ; 
you  risk  being  stupid.  .  .  .  You  forget,  you  ignore 
that  there  has  been  a  republican  mysticism  (that 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  17 

which  we  call  republican  mystics) ;  and  to  forget  it, 
and  to  ignore  it,  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  it  has 
not  existed.  Men  have  died  for  liberty  as  men  have 
died  for  faith.  These  elections  of  today  appear  to 
you  a  grotesque  formality,  universally  hypocritical, 
corrupt  through  and  through ;  and  you  have  the  right 
to  say  so.  But  men  have  lived,  men  without  num- 
ber, heroes,  martyrs,  and  I  will  say  saints,  and  when 
I  say  "saints,"  I  know,  perhaps,  what  I  am  talking 
about  ...  an  entire  people  have  lived  so  that  the 
lowest  idiot  of  today  should  have  the  right  to  accom- 
plish this  corrupt  formality.  This  was  a  terrible,  a 
laborious  and  formidable  childbirth.  Nor  had  this 
always  reached  the  limit  of  grotesqueness.  The 
peoples  around  us,  nations,  entire  races,  are  in 
travail  with  the  same  painful  childbearing;  are 
working  and  struggling  to  obtain  this  ludicrous 
formality  .  .  . 

"These  elections  are  ludicrous.  But  the  heroism 
and  the  sanctity  with  which,  by  means  of  which,  are 
obtained  these  ludicrous  results,  temporarily  ludi- 
crous, contain  all  that  is  most  line  and  most  sacred 
in  the  world. 

"Everything  begins  in  mystics  and  ends  in  pol- 
itics. .  .  .  The  essential  is  that  in  each  order  of 
things,  in  each  system,  the  mystic  should  not  be  de- 
voured by  the  politic  to  which  it  has  given  birth." 


18     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

I  thought  of  Peguy  when  I  read  this  simple 
answer  in  Witter  Bynner's  New  World:  "Beauty  in 
politics? — If  you  put  it  there."  .  .  .  Peguy  reacted 
against  our  tendency  to  desert  politics.  He  ac- 
cepted all  the  duties  of  the  citizen. 

Charles  Peguy,  who  went  as  a  lieutenant  of  re- 
serve with  his  section  of  infantry,  was  killed  at  the 
battle  of  the  Marne,  in  September,  1914. 

The  following  lines  are  to  be  found  in  his  last 
Cahier,  which  was  entitled  "Sur  la  Philosophic  de 
M.  Bergson,"  and  was  among  the  best  works  he  ever 
gave.  One  may  realize  the  loss  we  endured  by  his 
death. 

"A  great  philosophy  is  not  an  irreproachable 
philosophy.     It  is  a  fearless  philosophy. 

"A  great  philosophy  is  not  a  dictation.  The 
greatest  is  not  that  which  is  faultless. 

"A  great  philosophy  is  not  the  one  against  which 
there  is  nothing  to  say.  It  is  the  one  which  has 
said  something. 

"And,  moreover,  it  is  the  one  which  had  some- 
thing to  say,  in  spite  of  being  unable  to  say  it. 

"It  is  not  the  one  which  has  no  errors.  It  is  not 
the  one  which  has  no  gaps.  It  is  the  one  which  has 
abundancies. 

"It  is  not  a  question  of  confusing.     It  is  in  the 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  19 

schools  that  it  is  a  question  of  confusing.     It  is  not 
even  a  question  of  convincing. 

"To  confuse  the  adversary  in  a  matter  of  philoso- 
phy .  .  .  what  bad  breeding! 

"The  tme  philosopher  knows  that  he  is  not  stand- 
ing opposing  his  adversary,  but  beside  his  adver- 
sary and  others,  facing  a  reality  always  greater 
and  more  mysterious. 

"And  this  even  the  true  physician  knows.  That 
he  is  not  standing  opposing  his  rival  physician,  but 
beside  him,  facing  a  nature  always  more  profound 
and  more  mysterious. 

"To  listen  to  a  philosophical  debate,  or  to  partici- 
pate therein,  with  the  idea  that  one  is  going  to  con- 
vince or  subjugate  his  adversary,  or  that  one  is  going 
to  see  one  of  the  two  adversaries  confound  the  other, 
is  to  show  that  one  does  not  know  what  one  is  talking 
about,  to  acknowledge  to  great  incapacity,  vulgarity 
and  barbarism.  It  is  evidence  of  a  great  lack  of 
culture.  It  is  to  show  that  one  does  not  belong  to 
this  country." 

His  conclusion  to  the  discussions  about  Berg- 
sonism  was  this: 

"It  is  a  prejudice,  but  it  is  an  absolutely  un- 
eradicable  prejudice  that  demands  that  an  inflexible 
reason  should  be  more  a  reason  than  a  flexible  one. 


20     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

.  .  .  It  is  the  same  prejudice  that  demands  that  an 
inflexible  scientific  method  should  be  more  a 
method,  and  more  scientific,  than  a  flexible  scien- 
tific method. 

"It  is  evident,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  is  the  elastic 
and  flexible  methods,  flexible  logic,  and  flexible 
morals  that  are  the  most  severe,  as  they  adhere  the 
most  closely  to  their  object. 

"An  inflexible  logic  may  permit  errors  to  escape 
from  its  recesses.  ...  An  inflexible  moral  may 
permit  crimes  to  escape  from  its  recesses,  while,  on 
the  contrary,  a  flexible  moral  will  hold,  denounce 
and  pursue  the  sinuosities  of  those  things  which 
seek  to  escape.  Inflexibility  is  essentially  false; 
flexibility  is  true. 

"It  is  flexible  morals  which  exact  a  heart  to  keep 
perpetually  ready  and  pure,  and  which  exercise  the 
most  implacable  and  hard  restraints.  The  only 
ones  which  are  never  absent,  which  do  not  pardon. 
It  is  elastic  and  flexible  morals,  flexible  methods, 
flexible  logic,  that  exercise  the  most  implacable  ob- 
ligations. It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  most  honest 
man  is  not  he  who  enters  into  apparent  rules.  It  is 
he  who  remains  in  his  place,  who  works,  who  suff"ers 
and  who  says  nothing." 

These  are  the  last  lines  of  his  that  were  published. 
But  Peguy  was  still  an  elder  to  us.     I  shall  quote 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  21 

now  another  writer,  who  really  embodied,  for  the 
few  years  of  his  life,  our  best  feelings,  beliefs, 
enthusiasms.  He  was  the  living  soul  of  us  all. 
Henri  Franck  died  at  23,  before  the  war,  leaving 
an  unfinished  poem:  La  Danse  devant  UArche,  and 
various  essays  on  philosophy  and  literature. 

Here  are  the  verses  where  he  speaks  of  his  friends 
and  of  our  group :  ^ 

"French  boys,  fine  of  face,  raised  by  your  mothers, 

Who  from  babyhood  had  slow  and  serious  growth 

In  your  large  houses  enclosed  in  leafy  gardens. 

Boys  religious  as  I  was,  from  childhood  taught 

To  assist  the  priest  and  help  in  conducting  the  mass; 

Older,  you  left  intelligent  mother  and  wise  father 

And  came  to  complete  in  Paris  the  growth  of  your  spirit. 

You  have  sense  and  pleasing  manners,  politeness  and 

warmth ; 
Latin  and  geometry  you  knew,  and  combining 
Things  respected  from  childhood  and  those  learned  in 

college, 
Religious  boys,  much  troubled  by  your  studies. 
At  twenty  years  strangely  you  try  to  reconcile 
Old  beliefs  with  your  new  uncertainty." 

And  this  expresses  the  understanding  among  the 
young  men  who  find  themselves  before  the  new  task 
of  their  lives: 

"0  the  joy  of  feeling  ourselves  in  heart  among  our  con- 
temporaries, 
And  of  building  up  our  spirits  through  each  other! 
1  Translation  by  Miss  V.  Hale. 


22     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

"Because  in  the  same  year  we  were  all  conceived 
There  vibrates  a  secret  understanding  among  us, 
A  thing  that  is  strong  to  bind  our  youthful  brows 
As  the  yoke  binds  the  oxen  together  to  their  teams. 
Like  them  we  press  on  with  united  effort, 
Like  them  bear  on  the  earth  an  equal  weight. 

"The  air  in  which  our  laugh  rings  and  our  voices  sound 
Is  of  the  same  age.     It  was  born  with  us; 
Because  we  had  our  growth  at  the  same  time,  together, 
Each   of   us   understands,   and   each   expresses,   all   the 

others ; 
Each  of  us  easily  may  know  from  the  beginning 
What  this  clear-headed  old  man  may  not  know. 

"We  have  been  watching  the  new  life  grow  within  us, 

And  now  it  is  ripe,  eager  to  spend  itself. 

It  is  we,  now,  who  shall  take  the  risk. 

We,  who  shall  hurl  the  discus. 

And  our  violin  shall  lead  the  dance. 

We  are  seeking  a  place  where  to  build  our  work. 

"The  generation  which  we  form  together 
Is  winged  and  massive  as  a  swarm  of  bees — 
What  branch  will  hold  its  humming  fruit. 
And  what  will  be  the  flavour  of  our  honey?" 

Henri  Franck  had  a  clear  and  intense  belief  in 
the  genius  of  France.  He  said  of  the  French  lan- 
guage: 

"It  is  like  the  mobile  and  expressive  face, 
The  obedient  army  under  its  intelligent  chief, 
And  the  royal  road  where  the  spirit  entire 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  23 

May  march  forward  at  ease. 

Like  the  fiery  sword  the  arch-angel  wielded, 

The  sword  of  reason,  it  reveals  and  separates. 

Defines  and  creates  limits,  points  out  and  circumscribes. 

"It  has  the  ring  of  laughter,  it  is  the  voice  of  justice, 

The  sound  of  clearness  and  of  certitude. 

The  pure  expression  of  the  inner  self. 

Over  the  orator  it  throws  a  decent  dress, 

And  gives  the  hero's  voice  resounding  speech." 

And  glorifying  the  country  herself  and  then  the 
Republic: 

"I  greet  you,  sentinel  on  the  bridge  of  Europe, 

Live  bird  in  your  vines,  lark  in  your  field. 

Cock  singing  at  dawn  of  the  centuries  on  your  farm; 

And  as  a  peasant  entering  the  hall 

Out  of  respect  for  the  masters  of  the  house 

And  that  he  may  not  soil  the  finely  waxed  floor 

Carefully  removes  his  boots  and  holds  them  in  his  hand, 

So  in  your  honour,  0  France,  I  put  aside 

The  heavy  perturbation  of  my  spirit; 

The  gaze  with  which  I  look  upon  you  shall  be  clear. 

My  eyes  shall  look  with  love,  0  cherished  country! 

"0  ancient  wisdom  built  up  century  after  century; 
0  courage  of  the  world,  heart  of  the  West, 
Nation  inventive,  intelligent,  0  Living  One  — 
Republic,  I  hail  you  by  your  glorious  name. 

"As  a  young  woman  leaning  on  the  balcony  of  the  family 

mansion 
The  house  adorned  with  antique  portraits  and  coats  of 

arms,  and  statues  along  the  walks, 


24     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Will  not  look  at  the  walls  of  the  house 

Nor  its  arms  woven  in  beautiful  tapestries, 

Nor  the  ancient  escutcheons  painted  upon  its  wood, 

But  with  a  long  look  courageous  and  eager 

Follows  the  great  ships  cleaving  the  water  toward  new 

lands 
And  the  young  emigrant  with  exalted  look  on  his  face: 
O  Youth,  with  elbow  braced  upon  the  history  of  ages 
You  turn  your  eyes  toward  the  free  horizon. 

"And  you  are  the  first  to  build  and  the  first  to  destroy; 
That  in  your  generous  heart  you  may  feel  life  always 

warm, 
Each  century  you  turn  your  age-cold  knowledge  to  new 

purpose. 
You  put  to  untried  uses  your  ancient  wealth." 

If  I  quote  such  long  passages  it  is  because  I  never 
could  find  a  better  and  more  accurate  expression  of 
our  spirit  than  this  lyrical  one.  In  a  great  epoch, 
the  poets  are  the  best  speakers  of  a  nation. 

Henri  Franck  was  passionately  devoted  to  philo- 
sophical study  and  teaching.  But  his  essential  dis- 
position to  abstract  thought  did  not  prevent  him 
from  hearing 

"Along  the  open  frontier — the  stirring 

Of  ponderous  legions  of  Teutons  hungry  for  prey." 

And  in  one  of  his  philosophical  chronicles  in  the 
review  La'Phalange,  he  wrote  these  prophetical  sen- 
tences, as  he  returned  from  a  trip  to  Alsace,  where 
he  met  the  men,  the  Alsatians: 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  25 

"Ah,  when,  after  a  week,  I  went  up  again  from 
Barr  and  Obernai  to  Sainte-Odile,  under  my  steps 
questions  arose  with  the  leaves;  as  I  walked  with 
care  not  to  hurt  the  earth,  I  felt  that  I  was  treading 
on  a  great  and  sorrowful  problem.  We  must  go, 
all  of  us,  every  year,  several  times  a  year,  armed 
with  letters  of  introduction,  to  visit  Alsace  and  talk 
with  the  Alsatians.  You  will  not  teach  them  much, 
but  you  will  learn  a  great  deal  from  them — Barres 
is  right. 

"They  will  give  you  a  conclusive  lesson  in  energy 
and  manly  pride.  Though  Charles  Andler,  in  a 
magnificent  lecture,  did  indeed  warn  us  that  there  is 
no  German  culture,  I  had  not  grasped  the  whole 
meaning  of  the  statement.  Now,  thanks  to  the 
Alsatians,  I  am  in  a  position  to  confirm  it  and  to  ex- 
plain it  to  you.  .  .  . 

"The  question  is  a  pressing  one.  Germany  be- 
comes each  day  more  odious.  Europe  no  longer 
breathes  freely.  It  was  Germany  that  contrived 
the  vile  plot  which  made  Young  Turkey  its  victim. 
It  is  sad  to  think  that  today  Lord  Byron  would  go  to 
the  rescue  of  the  Turks,  but  where  is  Lord  Byron? 
And  we — what  are  we  doing?  We  must  really  ap- 
preciate that  the  time  for  delicate  intellectual  hesita- 
tions has  passed.  In  every  corner  of  the  world  the 
future   meets    one   obstacle:    Germany.  .  .  .  The 


26     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

magnificent  struggle  between  the  middle  class 
which  has  not  yet  lost  its  moral  strength,  and  those 
of  the  workers  who  are  seeking  to  find  and  to  pre- 
pare themselves,  is  dominated  and  warped  by  Ger- 
man effort.  Is  this  heavy  backward  force  much 
longer  to  bar  our  way?  Will  it  be  successful  in 
throwing  itself  across  the  path  of  the  creative  evo- 
lution of  French  freedom?" 

That  was  written  in  1910. 

It  may  easily  be  seen  that  the  want  of  young  men 
was  for  an  employment  of  their  mystical  faculties, 
an  answer  to  their  mystical  exigencies.  It  has  been 
called  a  "renaissance  of  idealism,"  which  is  not 
quite  true.  The  sign  of  youth  in  nations  as  well  as 
in  individuals  is  the  want  to  give  themselves  widely 
to  high  and  limitless  aims.  These  young  men  did 
not  exactly  go  back  to  a  former  spiritual  ideal. 
But  first  they  worshipped  what  they  knew  to  be  the 
highest  objects  of  love;  and  then  they  wanted  to  call 
"Divine"  what  they  loved.  Mystics  do  not  mean 
orthodoxy,  for  there  are  mystics  resulting  from  any 
high  form  of  belief,  and  they  do  not  exclude  each 
other.  A  mistake  that  was  made  some  time  ago 
was  to  expect  from  Science,  mystics  to  be  created 
that  would  replace  all  others.  This  could  no  more 
be  conceived  by  a  generation  which  had  assimilated 
pragmatism.     Now    Peguy    proposed    a    form    of 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  27 

mystics,  and  Paul  Claudel  another,  and  Wliitman 
another.  We  listened  to  them  all.  And  it  can  be 
said  indeed  that  there  was  no  new  work  of  art 
which  was  not  consciously  backed  by  mystics. 

Yes,  it  was  a  rich  epoch,  a  clean,  strong,  passion- 
ate one.  It  was  free  from  prejudice  for  or  against 
science.  But  everything  was  looked  at  for  what  it 
was,  and  only  those  false  ivitnesses  were  hated  who 
gave  to  France  a  visage  which  had  never  been  hers, 
and  were  responsible  for  the  distorted  image  which 
the  world  had  of  her.  ( Some  of  them  are  still  alive 
or  enthroned  in  the  Academic.)  A  sense  of  respon- 
sibility developed  which  was  not  imposed  as  a  heavy 
burden,  but  accepted  as  a  joyful  dignity.  Every 
moment  of  personal,  cultural  or  national  life 
obliged  a  choice,  and  it  was  indifference  which  was 
losing  ground.  Professor  James  Mark  Baldwin, 
who  followed  closely  that  "renaissance"  and  prob- 
ably interpreted  an  aspect  of  it  in  his  theory  of 
"Pancalism,"  wrote  in  1913:^ 

"Indeed,  the  signs  multiply  of  a  new  departure 
in  France,  a  departure  amounting  to  a  renascence 
of  the  spiritual  life.  It  shows  itself  in  a  new 
sobriety  and  firmness  in  foreign  policy,  a  new  de- 
mand for  personal  temperance  and  restraint,  a  new 

"i- French,  and  American  Ideals   (Manchester). 


28     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

enthusiasm  for  moral  achievement.  In  this  the  true 
elan  of  the  French  character  is  again  revealed.  A 
new  stage  of  the  French  ideal  is  in  process  of 
formation.  .  .  .  Americans  join  with  all  the  world 
in  acclaiming  this  renewal  of  the  national  life  of 
France  in  a  moral  purpose  so  resolute,  so  informed 
with  knowledge,  so  sure  of  itself." 

When  the  war  broke  out,  the  first  spontaneous 
manifestation  which  resulted  from  it  was  1' Union 
Sacree.  It  was  an  immediate  response  to  a  ques- 
tion that  had  to  be  instantly  solved.  All  solved  it 
in  the  same  sense,  because  a  clear  feeling  of  rela- 
tive importance  of  things  was  instantly  imposed 
upon  us.  First  of  all,  France  had  to  be  saved. 
And  in  this  struggle,  two  principles  were  face  to 
face.  On  one  side,  the  system,  more  immediately 
prosperous,  of  stiff  unification  and  mechanical  co- 
operation was  imposed — an  order  complete  but 
artificial.  On  the  other  side,  unification  coming 
by  itself,  from  within,  by  a  natural,  normal  process 
of  life  as  a  result  of  the  free  will  of  men  freely 
associated,  an  order  which  was  more  rich  and  flexi- 
ble. The  battle  of  the  Marne  decided  between 
those  two  orders,  and  was  for  the  civilized  world 
of  today  what  Salamis  had  been  for  the  Greek 
world. 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  29 

The  French  were  morally  prepared  for  the  worst, 
and  the  first  retreat  did  not  surprise  them.  If 
Paris  had  had  to  be  besieged  or  even  abandoned, 
the  army's  morale  would  have  stood  the  shock.  But 
that  extreme  trial  was  spared  us.  And  then  began 
a  great  experience  of  mutual  knowledge  for  the 
French.  Social  classes,  political  parties,  were 
mixed  in  the  trench,  and  as  each  one  was  giving 
an  equal  share  of  blood,  none  had  a  right  to  claim 
more  patriotic  authority  than  the  others.  These 
classes  and  parties  learned  to  meet  on  the  basis  of 
equality  before  death,  which  is  a  rather  solid  basis 
on  which  to  appreciate  each  other.  They  certainly 
are  decided  to  oppose  each  other  after  the  war, 
for  every  one  finds  in  the  great  and  complex  events 
reasons  to  confirm  his  faith  and  standards.  But 
they  will  fight  each  other  more  intelligently,  hav- 
ing more  respect  for  what  they  oppose.  No  valu- 
able evolution  of  thought  could  be  obtained  by 
sanguinary  process,  except  on  the  subject  of  war 
itself  and  the  realization  of  its  horrors.  But  in 
the  interior  of  each  party  an  evolution  occurred 
towards  more  consciousness  and  dignity. 

As  for  a  better  knowledge  of  foreign  minds,  what 
invaluable  experience  was  the  presence  on  our  soil 
of  men  from  most  allied  countries:  Belgians, 
Serbians,  Americans,  Englishmen,  Russians,  Portu- 


30     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

guese,  Italians!  What  an  opportunity  given  to  our 
young  men  to  put  into  practice  their  abstract  inter- 
est and  curiosity  for  other  countries,  and  to  prepare 
countless  forms  of  co-operation  for  the  work  after 
the  war! 

Many  of  them,  though,  will  work  no  more. 
Thousands  will  play  no  more  a  part  in  the  life  of 
the  country  they  loved — and  no  part  in  life  at  all. 
My  friends  Alain-Foumier,  Baguenier-Desormeaux, 
Jean  Reutlinger,  Armand  de  Montousse — and  my 
countless  brothers  whose  names  I  do  not  know — 
you  were  the  best  among  us  and  now  you  leave  a 
heavy  task  for  us  to  perform.  We  shall  miss  you 
not  with  the  heart  only;  we  shall  miss  your  energies 
and  advice.  At  least  we  must  try  to  imagine  what 
you  would  require  from  us,  and  then  do  it. 

Not  death  only  did  strike  the  martyred  country, 
but  also  sufferings  of  all  kinds.  The  endless  trains 
of  wounded,  I  have  them  well  in  mind.  Thousands 
of  bleeding  bodies  I  bent  over: 

"The  crushed  head  .  .  . 

The  neck  of  the  cavalryman  with  the  bullet  through  and 
through,  I  examine, 

.  .  .  The  perforated  shoulder,  the  foot  with  the  bullet- 
wound, 

.  .  .  The  one  with  a  gnawing  and  putrid  gangrene,  so 
sickening,  so  offensive.  .  .  ."  ^ 

1  Whitman. 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  31 

And  above  all,  this  has  been  the  infinite 
martyrdom  of  women.  Women  of  our  time  have 
been  through  trials  which  made  them  the  true  vic- 
tims of  this  war.  Think  of  the  little  probability  of 
the  infantryman  coming  back,  after  three  years  of 
renewed,  perpetual  risk.  Women  faced  this  with 
limitless  heroism.  They  had  shared  the  moral 
preparation  of  the  young  men ;  they,  too,  had  known 
those  enlightening  and  exalting  discoveries  which 
were  ours,  and  often  they  approached  more  closely 
than  we,  to  our  own  young  standards  of  life.  In- 
deed they  contributed  in  fixing  those  standards,  and 
we  knew  that  we  were  right  when  they  approved  of 
what  we  did.  In  the  war  they  played  a  part  equal 
to  that  of  the  men,  as  nurses,  workers  in  ammuni- 
tion factories,  and  in  learning  hundreds  of  new  oc- 
cupations. And  diey  brought  up  alone,  true  to  our 
ideals  magnified  by  the  greatest  of  sacrifices,  the 
children  of  the  fighting,  and  the  children  of  the 
dead. 

Useless,  criminal  business  was  this  war.  I  can't 
compare  it  better  than  to  a  huge  railway  catastrophe, 
due  to  mischief:  an  engineer  had  run  mad  and  be- 
lieved that  all  trains  had  to  yield  the  track  to  him. 
Now  trains  are  burning.  The  more  help,  the  sooner 
it  will  be  over.     It  is  no  more  a  question  of  idly 


32     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

discussing  if  railway  catastrophes  are  good  or  bad. 
It  is  a  business  of  stopping  the  mad  engine,  and  two- 
thirds  of  the  world  are  now  occupied  with  that 
task. 

This  experience  was  worthless  for  those  who  had 
found  without  it,  or  would  have  found,  a  noble 
sense  to  life  and  to  work.  It  was  just  enlighten- 
ing to  those  who  ignored  themselves,  and  had  their 
own  value  revealed  to  themselves,  through  it.  To 
most  it  was  but  the  opportunity  to  manifest  what  they 
unconsciously  were.  For  some,  for  very  few,  it 
meant  a  magnificent  display  of  their  best  qualities 
and  gave  a  full  employment  to  their  means.  I 
think,  for  instance,  of  the  aviators,  who  are  the 
very  definite  product  of  a  generation  formed 
through  love  of  science,  sport  and  self-sacrifice. 

I  felt,  when  I  happened  to  visit  them  in  the  field, 
that  I  met  the  very  exceptional  heroes  for  whom  this 
war  meant  (as  it  did  for  all  fighters  in  other  times) 
intense  individual  expression  of  power,  courage  and 
intelligence.  For  them  at  least  war  meant  exalted 
form  of  life. 

But  our  largest  hope  is  in  another  element,  more 
and  more  numerous,  and  which  does  much,  thinks 
more,  and  speaks  little  in  this  moment.  Have  you 
seen  a  drawing  by  Bernard  Naudin,  picturing  "Le 


THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  33 

Bleuet"?  Le  Bleuet  is  the  young  soldier  from  the 
classes  of  1914,  '15,  '16,  '17,  called  during  the 
war.  He  is  now  from  eighteen  to  twenty-two.  The 
young  man  who  is  now  about  to  enter  the  fight,  after 
he  had  had  three  years  of  moral  preparation  through 
the  fight  carried  on  by  his  elders,  is  a  new  kind  of 
man. 

He  grew  up  aware  of  the  near  presence  of  death. 
He  faced  in  their  sternest  reality  the  duties  and 
conflicts  of  personal  life,  family  life,  national  life. 
He  and  his  comrades  will  be  fit  to  lead  us  after 
the  war.     They  must  be  our  leaders. 

The  salvation  of  France  will  be  to  let  herself  be 
led  by  her  men  of  twenty,  when  they  come  back. 
They  know  evidently  more  than  we  do  about  the 
present  time.  They  have  our  experience  plus  their 
own.  They  can  see  our  schemes  meeting  realiza- 
tion or  failure;  our  dreams  become  their  schemes, 
and  they  have  dreams  in  their  turn  which  we  can- 
not guess,  and  which  will  come  true — as  our  night- 
mares did.  For  it  appears  that  these  men  have 
deep  and  reasonable  faith  in  themselves. 

Last  year,  in  Salonica,  Gaston  Cherau  told  me  this 
anecdote:  The  young  recruits  from  the  class  of 
1915  had  seen  their  first  battle,  and  had  behaved 
splendidly.  After  it,  an  old  officer  was  congratulat- 
ing them,  and,  briskly,  although  he  had  tears  in  his 


34     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

eyes,  told  some  of  them:  "  You  are  wonderful 
boys,  all  of  you."  A  young  fellow  replied: 
"  Oh,  Captain,  that's  nothing.  But  wait  a  minute 
till  you  see  those  from  the  class  of  '16 — then  you'll 
see  something!  " 


II 

ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917 

The  capital  fact  of  the  present  evolution.  Its  prophets. 
America's  work  during  the  first  part  of  the  war.  Conditions 
of  international  leadership.  Perils  of  "know-nothingism." 
The  value  of  common  experience.  The  value  of  common 
purpose.  War  and  Democracy.  The  pacifists  from  the 
trenches.  Our  "prussianization."  Common  sense  and  our 
aims. 

The  boy  enlisted.     Then  he  told  his  father,  who 
asked  him  what  his  motives  were: 

"Well,   this   treatment   of   the   Belgians   got   on 
my  nerves  at  last." 

These  United  States.  This  young  country — this 
old  country  in  the  experience  of  democracy.  A 
great,  successful  experience,  easy  but  for  one  dread- 
ful crisis,  when  the  land  was  divided  and  bleeding 
for  five  years.  And  now,  meeting  for  the  first  time 
an  actual  world  task. 

I  have  tried  to  set  aside  the  thousands  of  small 
episodes  and  observations  which  I  have  gathered 
during  my  presence  in  this  country,  and  to  isolate 
the  main  striking  significance  of  the  last  event.  I 
see  it  as  follows: 

The  nation  is  of  two  broad  categories,  having 
35 


36     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

practically  nothing  in  common  but  the  name  of 
American,  and  ideals  which  have  never  had  an  op- 
portunity to  appear  to  be  common.  First,  the  fam- 
ilies who  lived  in  America  in  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War,  then  those  who  have  arrived  since.  The  first, 
mostly  of  English,  Irish,  Dutch  and  French  descent. 
The  latter  German,  Slav,  Jewish,  Italian,  Syrian, 
etc.  The  first  had  colonized  and  organized  the  New 
World,  and  lived  through  the  crisis  which  put  its 
very  existence  in  question.  The  latter  came  to  a 
New  World  that  was  ready  and  achieved,  and  played 
an  obscure  part  in  its  prosperity.  Until  now  they 
have  had  no  place  in  the  ruling  class,  except  the 
Jews  who  first  reached  the  higher  positions.  All 
the  life  of  the  recent  immigrants  has  been  devoted 
to  personal  fortune  and  safety;  they  have  kept  a 
rather  sentimental  attachment  to  the  motherland  and 
the  traditions  of  the  race.  Still,  by  their  very  pres- 
ence on  this  soil,  they  shared  the  latent  ideal,  which 
was  that  of  public  liberty  and  personal  dignity. 
They  had  emigrated  to  find  it  and  to  find  a  larger 
chance  of  prosperity  under  a  sky  that  was  less  heavy 
than  the  sky  of  the  old  empires. 

Now  the  New  Country  is  agitated  by  the  irresist- 
ible call  of  the  world.  She  cannot  remain  isolated 
nor  indifferent.  The  world  makes  too  great  a  noise, 
and  that  noise  comes  nearer  and  nearer.     Things 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  37 

have  gone  far  since  the  torpedo  which  struck  the 
Lusitania  was  heard  exploding,  on  this  shore.  The 
New  Country  decides  her  ways  according  to  the 
old  principles  laid  by  the  first  immigrants,  but  ap- 
plied to  the  circumstances  of  the  present  day. 
President  Wilson  says  March  5,  1917:  "We  are 
provincials  no  longer.  The  tragical  events  of  the 
tliirty  months  of  vital  turmoil  through  which  we 
have  just  passed  have  made  us  citizens  of  the 
world.  There  can  be  no  turning  back.  Our  own 
fortunes  as  a  nation  are  involved,  whether  we  would 
have  it  so  or  not. 

"And  yet  we  are  not  the  less  Americans  on  that 
account.  We  shall  be  the  more  American  if  we  but 
remain  true  to  the  principles  in  which  we  have  been 
bred.  They  are  not  the  principles  of  a  province  or 
of  a  single  continent.  We  have  known  and  boasted 
all  along  that  they  were  the  principles  of  a  liberated 
mankind.  .  .  . 

".  .  .  All  nations  are  equally  interested  in  the 
peace  of  the  world  and  in  the  political  stability  of 
free  peoples,  and  equally  responsible  for  their 
maintenance." 

Those  historical  words  meant  new  duties  for  all 
America — the  first  and  the  second  category.  How 
did  the  second  behave?  How  far  did  it  endorse  the 
attitude  of  the  adopted  country? 


38     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

I  shall  give  an  instance  of  it  which  struck  me  very 
strongly: 

In  the  heart  of  the  great  metallurgic  district  of 
Pennsylvania,  thousands  of  Slavs  live  and  work, 
men  who  emigrated  to  escape  Austrian  and  Hun- 
garian oppression.  In  June,  1917,  after  the  visit 
to  this  country  of  a  Serbian  colonel,  Milan  Pribit- 
chevich,  who  talked  to  them  of  the  duty  to  help  in 
the  war  of  liberation,  two  thousand  enlisted  and 
went  at  once.     Now  they  are  fighting  in  Salonica. 

I  went  to  Johnstown  to  see  them  depart,  and  it 
was  a  spectacle  which  I  shall  never  forget.  They 
were  not  even  American  citizens  yet.  They  had 
lived  here  in  peace,  some  in  prosperity.  They 
could  never  have  been  forced  to  take  arms  against 
the  Empire  from  which  they  came.  But  they  chose 
to  revolt  against  it  because  the  spirit  of  liberty  was 
in  them.  I  saw  them  receiving  two  flags  from  the 
hands  of  their  priests,  an  American  flag  and  a 
Serbian  one.  They  took  the  oath  to  conquer  or 
to  die,  and  the  two  flags  were  solemnly  blessed. 
Then  those  simple  men,  who  belong  to  a  strong, 
pure,  peasant  race,  kissed  both  flags  as  a  sign  of 
equal  allegiance.  This  was  a  real  scene  from  the 
drama  of  the  great  international  upheaval. 

It  had  a  great  significance.  Those  emigrated 
people,  who  are  free  from  any  oppression  and  can 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  39 

hear  every  opinion,  have  the  right  to  claim  that  they 
represent  the  free  creeds  of  tlieir  countrymen  from 
oppressed  lands.  Now  they  speak  little,  but  they 
volunteer  and  go,  showing  that  this  country  is  not 
only  a  refuge  against  tyranny,  but  a  place  where 
the  energies  of  liberty  are  sufficiently  abundant  to 
be  spread  throughout  over  the  world. 

No  representative  of  America  was  there.  (The 
city  of  Johnstown  has  a  strong  German  population; 
the  authorities,  who  were  invited,  did  not  appear.) 
The  daily  papers  hardly  mentioned  this  departure 
of  two  battalions,  and  probably  did  not  notice  the 
meaning  of  it.  I  am  convinced  that  many  of  you 
Americans  do  not  know  the  resource  which  is  in 
those  simple  people,  who  make  no  advertisement 
of  their  feelings,  but  go  and  die  for  "your"  prin- 
ciples. And,  with  differing  souls,  their  love  for 
the  country  rests  on  the  same  basis  as  that  of  the 
builders  of  America  themselves. 

And  when  they  will  have  given  their  blood,  the 
last  difference  between  you,  which  rested  in  an  un- 
equal experience,  will  be  swept  out,  because  they 
will  have  shared  the  greatest  experience  of  your 
civic  life. 

I  think  this  is  the  capital  fact  of  the  present  evolu- 
tion, and  all  the  episodes  which  hold  the  headlines 


40     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

of  tlie  daily  papers  are  but  details  in  it.  This 
active  "melting"  process  is  the  triumphant  meaning 
of  America,  which  was  announced  by  its  prophets 
in  the  past,  and  which  also  vibrates  in  the  words 
of  its  younger  poets.     Whitman  exclaimed: 

Brain  of  the  New  World!  what  a  task  is  thine! 

To  formulate  the  Modern  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Land  tolerating  all — accepting  all.  .  .  . 

And  Witter  Bynner,  who  wrote  on  the  copy  of  his 
^^New  World,"  which  he  gave  to  me :  ,  .  ."the  new 
world  being  both  France  and  America,"  says: 

Here  as  I  come  with  heaven  at  my  side 

None  of  the  weary  words  they  say 

Remain  with  me, 

I  am  borne  like  a  wave  of  the  sea 

Towards  world  to  be  .  .  . 

And,  young  and  bold, 

I  am  happier  than  they — 

The  timid  unbelievers  who  grow  old!" 

What  happened  for  us  in  relation  with  the  world, 
happens  for  the  various  elements  of  your  country 
in  relation  with  each  other.  The  mutual  acquaint- 
ance of  the  various  races  in  the  ranks  of  the  national 
army  will  work  for  an  even  more  rapid  union. 

In  the  future,  the  violation  of  Belgium  and  the 
victory  of  the  Marne  will  be  regarded  as  events 
of  American  as  well  as  European  history,  since  the 
first  determined  the  conscience  of  the  world  against 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  41 

Germany,  and  the  second  made  it  possible  for 
America  to  interfere  in  time.  Your  moral  prep- 
aration was,  in  my  opinion,  as  rapid  as  it  could  be. 
But  many  elements  among  the  best  educated  and  in- 
formed had  not  waited  for  an  official  and  general 
intervention.  From  the  early  days  of  the  war 
American  boys  were  to  be  found  in  the  ambulance 
and  aviation  corps,  American  women  among  the 
nurses  and  engaged  in  Relief  work.  All  this  pro- 
ceeded from  two  virtues  which  I  think  are  char- 
acteristic of  America — chivalry  and  right  intui- 
tion. I  saw  those  qualities  applied  in  many  war 
works;  I  saw  them  give  unbelievable  results  of 
efficiency  in  some  instances,  like  the  "Appui  Beige," 
a  French  work  ruled  by  American  methods,  or  the 
Vacation  War  Relief  Committee  with  whom  I  had 
the  pleasure  to  co-operate,  and  who  supplies  our 
troops  with  surgical  field  material. 

I  remember  M.  Jusserand  telling  me  of  the  ex- 
treme delicacy  and  modesty  of  many  American  do- 
nators,  who  never  wanted  their  name  to  appear,  and 
often  gave  for  our  wounded  more  than  regard  for 
their  own  comfort  would  have  allowed  them  to  do. 

Indeed,  America  seems  to  be  designated  for  a 
certain  form  of  world-leadership,  which  does  not 
mean  a  world-domination,  far  from  it;  but  a  stand 


42     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

that  involves  an  example  to  be  followed  by  others. 
Some  countries  wanted  to  rule  the  world  when  the 
world  did  not  care  for  their  rule.  But  the  fact  is 
that  the  world  of  today  is  eagerly  expecting  Amer- 
ica to  play  a  leading  part  in  its  destinies.  You  do 
not  realize  how  much  an  enlightened  Russian, 
Frenchman,  Syrian,  Chinese,  expects  from  your 
presence  in  the  family  of  nations. 

But  there  are  heavy  conditions  to  be  fulfilled  by 
a  moral  leadership  like  the  one  which  is  wanted 
from  both  our  countries.  First  of  all,  "Know-noth- 
ingism"  has  to  be  banished.  America  will  reap  the 
fruits  of  her  clean,  unaggressive,  honest  policy: 
her  prestige  everywhere  is  growing,  which  means 
immediate  and  concrete  advantages.  But  America 
has  to  be  revealed  to  herself  with  all  that  she  con- 
tains.^ In  that  respect,  there  is  an  amazing  con- 
trast between  the  abundance  and  facility  of  in- 
formation, and  the  actual  lack  of  knowledge. 

1  "America  is  like  a  vast  Sargasso  Sea — a  prodigious  welter 
of  unconscious  life,  swept  by  ground-swells  of  half  conscious 
emotions.  All  manner  of  living  things  are  drifting  in  it, 
phosphorescent,  gaily  coloured,  gathered  into  knots  and  clotted 
masses,  gelatinous,  unformed,  flimsy,  tangled,  rising  and  fall- 
ing, floating  and  merging,  here  an  immense  distended  belly, 
there  a  tiny  rudimentary  brain  (the  gross  devouring  the  fine) — 
everywhere  an  unchecked,  uncharted,  unorganized  vitality  like 
that  of  the  first  chaos."  (Van  Wyck  Brooks  in  America's 
Coming   of  Age.) 

Since  these  lines  were  written,  America  has  entered  into  her 
new  process  of  crystallization. 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  43 

A  strange  phenomenon  of  the  present  time  de- 
serves more  attention  than  it  seems  to  have  roused. 
It  is  a  consequence  of  the  opposition  between  inter- 
ventionists and  pacifists.  The  first,  who  belonged 
to  the  nationalist  and  more  conservative  part  of  the 
country,  were  pushing  America  forward  and  urging 
her  to  take  part  in  the  world  conflict,  and  so 
hastened  her  evolution.  The  other  extreme  party, 
which  included  the  most  advanced  elements,  was 
striving  in  order  to  hold  the  country  back,  stopping 
her  on  her  way  to  intervention,  and  practically  act- 
ing as  reactionary  power.  The  filial  results  will 
probably  bring  surprises  to  both  parties. 

We  regard  America  as  being  nearly  ready  for 
political  leadership,  because  the  international  at- 
titude of  mind  of  the  Americans  is  the  right  one. 
They  are  not  embarrassed  by  old  prejudices  and 
methods,  and  have  a  tendency  to  settle  things  ac- 
cording to  elementary  human  right,  which  they 
never  lose  sight  of.  That  is  why  we  welcome 
America  in  the  conference  of  peace. 

But  my  hope  and  faith  in  America  is  not  con- 
fined to  that.  I  expect  from  her,  very  soon,  some 
great  artistic  revelations.  Her  avidity  to  absorb 
will  soon  be  followed  by  a  faculty  to  choose  and  to 
reject,  and  then  she  will  be  ready  for  creation, 


44     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

which  will  not  be  an  isolated  exception.  Already 
some  splendid  isolated  works  are  showing  the  way. 
I  find  one  more  likeness  with  the  French,  in  the 
fact  tliat  many  American  men  and  women  are  worth 
more  than  the  purpose  they  seem  to  have  in  life. 
Are  not  some  disputable  forms  of  success  still  pur- 
sued, at  the  cost  of  happiness,  health  and  life  itself, 
by  men  and  women  of  rich  resource  who  kill  in 
themselves  all  possibility  for  deep,  personal,  orig- 
inal life?  It  is  because  we  love  America  so  much 
that  such  slight  disappointments  do  not  leave  us 
indifferent. 

The  present  crisis  is  bringing  to  the  people  of 
America  a  moral  experience  which  can  be  com- 
pared with  that  which  came  to  the  people  of  France, 
in  August,  1914.  Of  course,  the  experience  of 
American  citizens  will  never  be  the  same  as  that  of 
the  Europeans.  But  similarly  the  English  experi- 
ence in  the  war  is  not  the  French  one,  which  in 
turn  is  neither  the  Belgian,  nor  the  Serbian,  nor 
the  Polish.  King  Albert's  situation  is  not  Presi- 
dent Wilson's;  still  as  a  matter  of  fact,  both  took 
the  same  attitude  towards  the  same  challenge. 

The  United  States  took  its  actual  stand  by  a  long 
considered  act  which  consciously  involves  large  re- 
sponsibilities.    And  the  whole  countiy,  understand- 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  45 

ing  the  gravity  of  possible  consequences,  is  making 
rapid  acquaintance  with  that  "Union  Sacree"  which 
in  France  was  our  first  great  positive  experience  in 
the  present  war. 

There  was  until  now,  in  spite  of  our  common 
principles,  one  tremendous  difference  between  us. 
The  people  of  France  had  first  to  lose  their  feeling 
of  security  and  be  thrown  on  the  battlefield.  Amer- 
ica had  not  even  been  made  anxious  for  her  safety. 
Now  her  every  citizen  is  anxious,  and  thinks,  and 
tries  to  find  his  way.  And  that  anxiety  is  in  itself 
an  immense  experience. 

Now  if  something  great  is  to  be  realized  after 
the  war,  if  we  are  to  know,  as  Mr.  Wilson  and  our 
successive  Premiers  have  said  explicitly,  a  peace 
maintained  by  an  organized  international  will,  then 
the  future  maintainers  of  that  peace  have  first  to 
understand  each  other,  and  this  implies  that  the 
terms  we  use  have  a  similar  sense.  What  under- 
standing was  possible  between  a  European  soldier 
with  his  three  years  of  fighting  in  the  trenches,  with 
his  experiences  of  danger,  of  anger,  and  of  medi- 
tation in  the  constant  face  of  death — and  an  Ameri- 
can citizen  from  the  West?  Today,  the  citizen 
from  the  West  has  made  up  his  mind,  has  reflected 
on  the  government's  reasons,  and  has  endorsed  the 
President's  action.     There  was  no  alliance,  there 


46    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

was  no  concerted  action  between  us.  But  the  facts 
are  these:  France  which  was  peaceful  had  to 
mobilize  against  certain  destructive  forces.  Amer- 
ica which  is  peaceful  had  to  mobilize  against  the 
same  forces.  Thus  our  effort  and  your  effort  to- 
ward peaceful  life  had  something  in  common,  were 
it  only  the  common  drawback  to  its  success.  And 
so  in  the  struggle  to  establish  a  lasting  peace,  we 
were  already  co-operating  indirectly.  Thus  some 
international  terms  had  passed  from  Utopia  to 
reality.  This  may  seem  to  be  of  little  importance. 
Still  it  is  capital. 

Because  peace  will  come.  We  must  remember 
that  today  throughout  the  world  a  formidable  and 
resolute  will  exists,  almost  unanimous,  to  guar- 
antee that  peace,  in  the  future,  against  the  intrigues 
of  adventurous  politics.  That  will  exists  even 
more  firmly  in  the  minds  of  those  who  do  not  ex- 
press it  in  speeches,  but  are  fighting  for  it. 

In  1792  France  wanted  to  bring  liberty  to  the 
world.  The  world  was  not  ready  to  receive  it. 
Only  the  Americans,  the  Swiss,  and  the  English, 
as  nations,  knew  what  the  word  itself  meant.  Most 
of  the  others,  as  the  French  sometime  earlier,  did 
not  see  anything  more  glorious  than  to  belong  to  a 
prince.  The  world  really  awoke  in  1848.  In  the 
same  way  the  world  of  three  years  ago  was  not  ripe 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  47 

for  the  general  enforcement  of  peace.  But  now  it 
is  awake,  dreadfully  indeed,  and  waits  for  some- 
thing that  has  to  come.  Will  you  say  it  is  Utopian, 
the  international  understanding  which  practically 
all  inhabitants  of  the  civilized  world  call  for  with 
all  their  hearts,  and  for  which  so  many  are  dying? 

Well,  to  obtain  this  result  of  understanding,  we 
have  to  deal  with  terms  of  common  significance. 
Until  February  3rd  the  end  of  the  war  seemed  to 
announce  itself  as  the  way  into  an  obscure,  uncer- 
tain period,  full  of  debates  and  disagreements, 
where  three  groups  of  Powers  would  be  involved, 
directly  or  otherwise:  the  Allies,  the  Central  Pow- 
ers, the  neutrals.  And  what  was  there  of  common 
significance  for  those  three  groups  of  similar 
strength,  and  entirely  dissimilar  mentalities,  ex- 
periences, and  aspirations? 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  consequence  of  the  Ameri- 
can intervention.  America  has  broken  with  a  na- 
tion that  refused  to  respect  treaties.  It  is  not  a 
special  point  of  maritime  right  that  matters  here; 
it  is  a  fundamental  opposition  of  doctrine.  Amer- 
ica refuses  to  admit  that  a  nation,  more  than  an 
individual,  might  suppress  a  law,  when  that  law  in- 
terferes with  its  desires.  An  Austrian  diplomat 
said:  "A  nation  has  a  right  to  wage  a  preventive 
war."     He  meant  the   attack   on   Serbia.     Chan- 


48     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

cellor  Bethmann-Hollweg  said :  "Necessity  knows  no 
law."  He  meant  the  attack  on  Belgium.  Amer- 
ica stands  firmly  against  these  doctrines,  or  rather, 
this  destruction  of  all  doctrines. 

The  French  soldiers  are  standing  against  the 
same.  For  our  men,  with  their  long  civic  training, 
are  not  so  stupid  and  so  blind  and  so  tame  as  to  fight 
during  three  years  of  terrible  and  patient  struggle, 
without  knowing  why  they  do  it.  It  is  not  for  a 
detail,  but  for  the  most  decisive  principles.  And  if 
Americans  went  to  war,  it  was  for  similar  prin- 
ciples, and  not  only  to  avenge  a  submarine  com- 
mander's bloody  fantasy. 

And  now  do  you  see  the  consequence,  young 
American,  my  comrade?  For  the  future  we  shall 
have  the  experience,  in  common  with  the  whole 
civilized  world,  of  having  resisted  the  German  at- 
tempt, just  as  we  should  have  resisted  any  otlier:  the 
ideas  which  we  are  fighting  exist  elsewhere,  al- 
though they  have  been  disappearing  little  by  little. 
In  Germany  and  Austria  alone  have  they  remained 
permanent  ideas  of  government. 

When  peace  comes,  we  shall  find  ourselves  to  be 
one  vast  group  of  nations  (your  President  said  a 
family)  instead  of  various  groups  confronting  each 
other  in  mistrust  and  misunderstanding.  There 
will  be,  as  there  is  already  potentially  (and  this  is 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  49 

not  a  dream),  a  single  ensemble  wherein  at  least 
one  common  fundamental  idea  will  have  been  ex- 
pressed, and  even  two.  First — the  will  to  preserve 
a  lasting  peace,  and,  therefore,  to  put  into  practice 
the  necessary  means,  which  had  never  been  seri- 
ously considered,  because  of  the  lack  of  manifest 
faith  and  will  on  the  part  of  the  great  number. 
Second — the  common  experience  of  what  threatens 
peace;  that  is,  the  so-called  right  of  the  mightier, 
used  as  a  state  doctrine,  such  as  is  represented  by 
imperial  Germany. 

What  has  been  lacking  until  now  is  a  definite, 
clear  idea  to  put  forth  in  common.  Here  we  have 
two.     These  are  enough  to  begin  with. 

There  seems  to  me  no  doubt  that  Germany's  eyes 
will  be  opened,  and  that  she  will  follow,  because 
there  will  be  no  choice  for  her.  Perhaps  she  will 
even  publish  the  biggest  books  about  universal  peace 
and  the  ways  of  preserving  it.  We  shall  see  her 
coming  slowly  to  understand  tlie  principles  enun- 
ciated by  both  President  Wilson  and  the  Allies. 
Indeed,  on  February  3rd  Mr.  Wilson  spoke  not 
only  as  the  leader  of  these  states,  but  as  a  leader  of 
civilization  itself.  We  shall  see  Germany  falling 
in  line,  however  unwillingly,  with  the  world.  And 
that  shall  be  our  revenge  for  all  the  evil  she  has 
done  us. 


50     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

So  the  hideous  war  which  began  as  a  last  at- 
tempt for  domination,  will  end  as  the  first  operation 
of  international  order  and  police,  thanks  to  the 
common  understanding  wrought  in  the  minds  of 
even  the  most  remote.  Those  whom  long  dis- 
tance separates  from  the  actual  conflict  are  now 
brought  to  an  experience  comparable  with  that  of 
the  mobilized  peoples  of  western  Europe,  because 
they  have  acknowledged  similar  moral  standards, 
and  because  information  travels  fast.  And  it  will 
be  the  first  time  that  practically  the  whole  civilized 
world  will  have  done  something  in  common,  with 
its  soul  and  its  best  forces.  This  involves  an  ad- 
mirable consequence:  that  this  world  will  be  in 
active  process  of  understanding  before  peace  comes. 
Thus  peace  will  find  divergent  minds  already  pre- 
pared to  work  together.  Christianity  itself  never 
knew  such  a  wide  and  mighty  gathering  under  a 
common  purpose.  Now  the  combined  forces  for 
peace  can  work  with  the  prospect  of  being  stronger 
than  any  warlike  minority  that  may  arise;  even 
those  minorities  allied  together  could  not  impose 
their  will  upon  us,  if  us  means  the  rest  of  the  world. 
I  believe  that  it  will  remain  the  great  dignity  of 
America  that  she  took  her  stand  in  spite  of  her  re- 
moteness from  the  major  conflict,  in  spite  of  her 
immediate  comfort  perhaps;  a  stand  worthy  of  na- 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  51 

tions  who  will  tomorrow  build  the  future,  and  who 
fight  today  in  order  to  render  the  future  possible. 


Among  the  many  confused,  contradictory  im- 
pulses and  interests  which  cross  each  other  or  com- 
bine or  come  into  clash  in  the  present  time,  one 
essential  idea,  or  at  least  one  word  seems  to  be  found 
everywhere,  in  every  program  and  as  if  written  in 
golden  letters  on  every  banner.  The  word  Democ- 
racy seems  to  sum  up  the  principal  purposes  which 
men  are  now  fighting  for.  "The  world  has  to  be 
made  safe  for  Democracy."  This  formula  has  met 
an  almost  unanimous  assent.  Of  course  the  sense 
given  to  the  word  differs,  according  to  parties,  to 
national  and,  above  all,  to  personal  standpoint — as 
it  happened  in  the  French  revolution  with  the  word 
"Liberty."  But,  notwithstanding  those  variations, 
are  we  entitled  to  call  the  victory  of  Democracy 
a  common  purpose  for  the  people  involved  in  the 
struggle  on  one  side? 

In  dealing  with  such  matters  as  these,  I  want  to 
say  that  if  my  temerity  is  great,  at  least  my  am- 
bitions are  very  limited.  On  those  two  subjects 
of  war  and  of  Democracy  millions  of  words  have 
been  printed,  miles  of  paper  covered  with  tons  of 
ink  and  even  many  valuable  ideas  have  been  ex- 


52     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

pressed.  My  intention  is  not  to  introduce  any  new 
proposition  or  solution  of  my  own  to  the  world 
crisis,  but  to  sum  up  tlie  very  essential  elements 
which  constitute  the  point  of  view  of  the  average 
Frenchman  of  our  times. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  find  the  average  man 
in  France.  Because  we  are  so  different  from  each 
other,  and  rather  satisfied  to  be  diff"erent.  So  that 
if  you  succeeded  in  discovering  the  average  man, 
he  would  probably  protest  with  the  utmost  energy 
and  profess  to  be  in  no  way  an  average  repre- 
sentative, but  simply  an  exceptional,  independent, 
original  sort  of  man,  and  this  without  any  special 
pride  or  conceit,  just  as  the  next  fellow  would 
claim  to  be.  One  must  not  forget  that  point,  for 
it  will  help  to  realize  what  our  conception  of 
Democracy  is. 

But  I  shall  try  to  give,  at  least,  the  view  of  the 
young  men  who  have  had  the  experience  of  the  war, 
for  they  will  be  the  most  active  and  influential  fac- 
tor in  the  future. 

They  went  to  war — it  is  very  simple — because 
their  country  was  invaded,  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to 
prevent  it.  They  went  to  defend  France.  But 
what  does  France  mean?  I  am  not  quite  sure  that 
France  means  only  a  country  among  many  others^ 
— a  flag,  a  language  and  a  surface  of  land;  al- 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  53 

though  these  things  seem  to  many,  worth  fighting 
for.  Will  the  reader  agree  if  I  say  that  France 
means  perhaps,  among  other  things,  the  land  of  free 
invention,  discussion  and  experiment  for  social 
progress? — a  living  laboratory,  where  every  new 
principle  was  tried  (at  our  own  expense)  before 
being  spread  over  the  world? 

Perhaps  they  did  not  go  to  war  because  of  that? 
But  still  they  fought  because  we  loved  France,  and 
they  loved  France  because  she  meant  that. 

I  have  explained  how  France,  as  a  nation,  had 
no  aggressive  plan  at  all.  How  we  did  not  ex- 
pect readjustment  of  the  injustice  committed  in  '71 
through  a  war,  but  through  some  other  way.^  That 
war  came  upon  us  as  a  consequence  of  the  world's 
indifference  about  some  essential  problems.  Now, 
what  is  the  present  feeling  of  the  Frenchman  who 
has  "seen  it  through"?  I  dare  say  that  there  is 
one  idea  that  dominates  all  others.  And  it  domi- 
nates them  from  such  a  height  that  one  could  say 

1  "Remember  that  for  over  forty  years,  we  kept  in  our  hearts 
that  open  wound:  Alsace-Lorraine;  and  we  did  not  make  war 
— we  suffered  in  silence.  Our  brothers  were  victims  of  the 
most  hideous  system  of  police  oppression  that  was  ever  in- 
flicted upon  a  free  people.  We  knew  it,  and  stood  it  because 
we  wanted  peace.  It  was  not  enough;  since  the  beginning  of 
the  Twentieth  Century  we  had  to  suffer  German  provocations 
in  Morocco  and  other  places.  We  suffered  them  because  we 
wanted  peace."  (Speech  of  High  Commissioner  Andr^  Tardien 
before  the  Alliance  Fran^aise  of  New  York,  Oct.  11,  1917.) 


54     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

it  is  not  the  principal  idea  of  our  men,  but  the  only 
one :     This  war  has  to  be  the  last  one. 

Everybody  is  awake  to  that.  And  if  you  ask 
not  even  the  cultivated  man,  but  any  of  our  "bon- 
hommes,"  in  any  trench  in  any  region  of  the  front, 
he  will  tell  you  sternly,  simply:  '"We  do  this,  and 
we  remain  here,  and  we  shall  remain  to  the  end,  so 
that  our  children  wont  have  to  do  it  again." 

No,  indeed,  you  do  not  know  how  much  we  do 
hate  war.  .  .  . 

We  have  been  living  for  years  in  all  the  generous 
opinions  which  many  discover  today.  And  we  do 
not  abjure  our  faith  in  a  better  world — since  we 
fight  for  it.  To  all  our  theoretical  and  reasonable 
hatred  against  war,  we  now  add  the  hatred  which 
comes  through  the  experience  of  it.  Why  should 
a  catastrophe,  for  which  we  are  not  responsible — 
which  came  by  the  crimes  of  this  German  ruling 
military  class  which  thinks  little — change  ideas  that 
we  know  to  be  true,  after  we  had  given  them  so 
much  thought?  Only  there  was  too  generous  illu- 
sion in  believing  that  other  people  had  then  reached 
our  level. 

For  us  Napoleon's  failure  was  a  sufficient  dem- 
onstration. All  our  liberal  thought,  through  the 
19th  century,  is  founded  upon  the  conviction  of 
that  failure.     You  can  find  it  in  the  writings  of 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  55 

all  those  who  embody  the  popular  French  spirit, — 
of  course  mixed  with  a  great  sentimental  recollec- 
tion of  our  glories  and  splendors.  But  the  Ger- 
mans derived  from  Napoleon's  adventure  only 
limitless  admiration  for  might  and  conquest.  They 
kept  anachronistic  ideals  which  were  in  vogue  at 
the  time  of  Louis  XIV.  Historically  they  belonged 
to  250  years  back. 

Our  men  know  that  victory  will  come  if  they 
wait  long  enough,  and  kill  and  are  killed  until 
the  enemy  understands.  Germany  started  with 
victories;  but  she  has  to  meet  her  failure.  Mili- 
tarism has  to  meet  its  failure,  a  failure  which  will 
prove  the  vanity  of  domination.  Our  men  who 
are  near  to  the  facts  and  have  nothing  to  intoxicate 
them,  grimly  do  their  grim  duty,  and  are  united 
in  their  fighting  pacifism.  For  the  trenches  are 
peopled  with  pacifists,  and  they  would  resent  bit- 
terly any  one's  saying  that  they  like  war,  since 
they  make  it;  or  that  they  make  it  through  blind- 
ness and  credulity. 

Three  days  before  the  war  broke  out  some  of  us 
had  doubts  about  the  decisions  of  socialists  and  syn- 
dicalists. These  men  would  never,  never  have 
fallen  in  line  with  conquering  armies.  But  when 
they  saw  that  France  did  all  that  was  possible  to 
prevent  war,  that  our  soldiers  had  been  withdrawn 


56     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

six  miles  from  the  border  in  order  to  avoid  any 
possible  incident,  and  that  it  was  really  a  war  of 
right  against  might,  then  they  threw  all  their  might 
— as  did  America — on  the  right  side.  It  is  ex- 
tremely instructive  to  read  the  articles  written  by 
Herve,  the  anti-militarist  leader,  who  led  a  daily 
patriotic  fight  in  his  paper,  Le  Guerre  Sociale,  later 
La  Victoire,  and  who  was  among  the  first  to  wel- 
come V  Union  Sacree.  He  saw  clearly  that,  in  or- 
der to  save  peace,  the  unchaining  of  war  had  not  to 
be  left  successful  and  unchastened.  He  did  not 
the  less  maintain  his  democratic  standards,  attack- 
ing the  wrong  use  of  censorship,  defending  free  dis- 
cussion. But  he  joined  the  unanimous  fight  for  the 
end  of  wars  and  the  defeat  of  dangerous  ambitions. 

How  is  tliis  result  to  happen?  We  cannot  yet 
outline  the  exact  details,  but  we  all  believe  it  will 
happen  through  a  certain  common  interpretation  of 
democracy ;  and  that  is  why  we  believe  in  democracy 
not  as  a  dream,  but  as  a  mighty  reality,  whose  first 
eff"ect  will  be  to  prevent  the  return  of  world  calami- 
ties like  this. 

I  say:  a  common  interpretation  of  democracy. 
And  indeed  if  something  like  a  league  of  nations, 
a  common  work  for  common  purpose,  has  to  be 
brought  about,  it  can  be  only  by  a  common  inter- 
pretation of  the  term  which  we  are  now  using  as  a 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  57 

watchword.  That  term,  with  all  the  various  mo- 
tives that  it  involves,  has  to  be  carefully  defined, 
again  and  again,  in  all  the  allied  countries.  The 
more  we  can  express  in  common  now  the  easier  the 
task  will  be  at  the  end  of  the  war,  the  further  we 
will  be  able  to  carry  our  first  common  results. 

Now  let  me  tell,  under  my  own  responsibility, 
what  I  mean  by  democracy,  I  being  a  man  at  least 
independent  from  political  parties,  and  having  ob- 
served a  little,  in  various  countries  of  our  Western 
World  and  of  the  Near  East  during  this  crisis. 

Democracy  is  a  name  for  a  common  basis;  it  is 
the  ground  on  which  every  personal,  independent, 
original  life  can  be  erected.  It  is  not  an  end  by 
itself,  as  the  German  conception  of  the  State  or 
the  Roman  conception  of  the  Empire.  It  is  a  be- 
ginning. It  is  not  a  ceiling.  It  is  a  floor;  the 
main  floor,  for  all  human  undertaking,  to  be  built 
upon.  It  is  not  a  limitation  to  individuality,  it  is  a 
protection  for  it. 

And  if  I  may  express  my  full  thought:  I,  as  a 
Frenchman  and  as  a  writer,  if  I  stand  for  Democ- 
racy it  is  because  it  off^ers  the  safest  and  most  ac- 
ceptable and  loyal  basis  for  individualism.  By 
individualism  I  don't  mean  egoism  and  selfish  aims. 
The  highest  aim  for  individual  life  is  self-sacrifice. 
But  it  has  to  be  free  sacrifice.     Sacrifice  to  what 


58     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

you  choose  and  love  and  want  to  serve.  Not  to  a 
mechanical,  artificial  State  which  has  been  im- 
posed upon  you,  and  where  everything  is  provided 
for,  except  your  own  possibility  of  a  choice,  or 
right  to  a  choice. 

It  has  been  objected  that  in  order  to  fight  we  had 
to  prussianize  ourselves.  Yes,  of  course  the  bellig- 
erents get  prussianized.  .  .  .  And  what  I  welcome 
there  is  that  they  will  have  one  more  reason  to  hate 
war.  But  please,  do  not  believe  that  after  centu- 
ries of  ardent  struggle  for  more  liberty  a  sudden 
external  cause  might  destroy  that  aspiration  in  us. 
The  spirit  of  liberty  has  deeper  roots,  or  it  would 
not  be  worth  speaking  of!  France  gives  testimony 
that  she  loves  liberty  more  than  she  ever  did,  for 
any  useless  restriction  to  her  liberties  provokes 
violent  and  ever-ready  resistance. 

Our  hearts  have  not  so  easily  lost  their  robust 
love  for  freedom.  And  we  had  rather  get  ap- 
parently prussianized  for  a  time,  and  disgusted 
with  it,  than  get  prussianized  forever,  and  the  world 
with  us,  by  permitting  the  Prussian  victory. 

That  would  mean  intense,  deep,  definitive  ger- 
manization  of  everything,  and  of  yourselves,  by  the 
irresistible  prestige  of  success.  Through  educa- 
tion, imitation,  and  through  sheer  necessity,  German 
methods  of  competition  would  rule  the  world,  each 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  59 

German  would  become  a  missionary  of  the  com- 
pulsory Doctrine.  Individual  freedom  would  be 
put  100  years  back.  If  only  France  had  proved 
weaker,  or  America  more  indifferent,  that  fate 
would  have  been  ours,  and  yours.  That  is  why  our 
soldiers  are  really  dying  for  Democracy  when  they 
resist  German  world-domination. 

I  hope  that  I  am  as  far  as  possible  from  being 
paradoxical.  Democracy  is  a  matter  of  common 
sense,  as  much  as  art  and  private  life  are  matters 
of  personal  sense.  Things  have  to  be  made  clear, 
and  I  suppose  they  are,  in  the  mind  of  a  great 
number,  and  of  most  of  the  fighting  men,  and  they 
only  need  to  be  formulated,  as  they  scarcely  begin 
to  be. 

On  the  origin  of  this  war,  that  it  is  a  war  of 
conquest  and  oppression,  I  suppose  we  agree.  A 
principle  was  violated  when  Austria,  already  de- 
taining Serbian  provinces,  attacked  the  little  king- 
dom. And  that  principle  is  not  a  recent  invention, 
although  it  appears  to  be  still  too  new  for  the  rulers 
of  the  Central  Powers.  It  has  been  enunciated  very 
clearly  by  Turgot  when  he  said  about  America's 
right  to  independence:  "It  is  a  strange  thing  that 
it  be  not  yet  a  commonplace  truth  to  say  that  no 
nation  can  ever  have  the  right  to  govern  another 
nation;  that  such  a  government  has  no  other  forma- 


60     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

tion  than  force,  which  is  also  the  foundation  of 
brigandage   and   tyranny.  .  .  ." 

This  is  today  a  commonplace  for  us.  It  is  not 
yet  so  for  the  Germans.  The  impulse  which  led 
you  into  this  war  is  the  same  which  made  us  go  to 
your  rescue,  and  made  Franklin  say  of  us:  "This 
nation  is  fond  of  glory,  particularly  that  of  protect- 
ing the  oppressed." 

Our  common  purpose  has  been  splendidly  de- 
fined by  the  President  of  these  States.  His  address 
to  the  Senate  on  January  22,  1917,  extending  the 
Monroe  doctrine  to  the  world,  already  said: 
"There  is  no  entangling  alliance  in  a  concert  of 
power.  When  all  unite  to  act  in  the  same  sense 
and  with  the  same  purpose,  all  act  in  the  common 
interest  and  are  free  to  live  their  own  lives  under  a 
common  protection."  On  March  6th,  he  empha- 
sized the  new  situation  of  America.  In  his  ad- 
dress of  April  3,  he  pronounced  the  famous  words: 

"We  are  at  the  beginning  of  an  age  in  which  it 
will  be  insisted  that  the  same  standards  of  conduct 
and  of  responsibility  for  wrong  done  shall  be  ob- 
served among  nations  and  their  governments  that 
are  observed  among  the  individual  citizens  of  civ- 
ilized states.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democ- 
racy.    Its  peace  must  be  planted  upon  the  tested 


ABOUT  AMERICA  IN  1917  61 

foundations  of  political  liberty.  We  have  no 
selfish  ends  to  serve.  .  .  .We  are  but  one  of  the 
champions  of  the  rights  of  mankind.  We  shall  be 
satisfied  when  those  rights  have  been  made  as  se- 
cure as  the  faith  and  the  freedom  of  nations  can 
make  them.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "We  shall  fight  for  the  things  which  we 
have  always  carried  nearest  our  hearts — for  democ- 
racy, for  the  right  of  those  who  submit  to  authority 
to  have  a  voice  in  their  own  governments,  for  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  small  nations,  for  a  universal 
dominion  of  rights  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples 
as  shall  bring  peace  and  safety  to  all  nations  and 
make  the  world  itself  at  last  free." 

And  the  sense  of  our  actual,  of  our  Second  Alli- 
ance, has  been  well  defined  by  M.  Jusserand  in  his 
short  speech  on  May  3d  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States,  when  he  said: 

"What  you  do  now  is  to  come  to  Europe  to  take 
part  in  the  fight  for  liberty,  a  fight  in  which  you 
expect  no  recompense,  no  advantage,  except  that 
very  great  advantage,  that  in  the  same  way  that  we 
helped  to  secure  liberty — human  liberty,  individual 
liberty,  national  liberty — on  this  continent,  you  will 
fight  to  see  that  liberty  be  preserved  in  the  broad 
family  of  nations. 

"Thanks  to  you,  we  shall  see  the  calamities  of 


62     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

this  struggle  shortened,  and  a  new  spirit  of  liberty 
grow  greater  and  stronger,  pervade  all  countries 
and  indeed  fill  the  world." 

Since  then  I  read  in  the  papers  that  when  General 
Pershing  landed  at  Boulogne,  General  Dumas,  who 
is  not  a  diplomat  nor  a  theorician,  but  the  com- 
mander of  our  Northern  region,  said  to  him : 

"Your  coming  opens  a  new  era  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  The  United  States  of  America  is  now 
taking  its  part  with  the  United  States  of  Europe. 
Together  they  are  about  to  found  the  United  States 
of  the  World,  which  will  definitely  and  finally  end 
the  war  and  give  a  peace  which  will  be  enduring  and 
fruitful  for  humanity." 

This  expresses,  I  think,  the  belief  of  our  average 
Frenchman.  And  why  should  that  hope  prove  to 
be  vain?  It  is  reasonable,  on  the  contrary,  since 
it  expresses  the  will  of  the  overwhelming  majority, 
in  a  matter  where  the  majority  will  have  to  decide. 

And  if  the  result  is  attained  once  for  all,  then 
the  huge,  untold  sacrifice  will  not  have  been  made 
in  vain. 


Ill 

PROMISES  OF  CONCRETE  CO-OPERATION 

New  conditions  of  work  in  Europe,  nearer  to  the  American 
conditions,  because  of  the  scarcity  of  men  and  the  necessity  of 
rapid  reconstruction.  American  methods  to  be  brought.  The 
new  spirit  of  economic  activity  in  France.  A  writer  on  French 
labor.  An  instance  of  common  task:  co-operation  in  the  coun- 
tries which  are  economically  backward,  but  jealous  of  national 
independence,  and  will  welcome  the  Franco-American  enter- 
prises. 

First  of  all  we  must  squarely  face  the  facts.  At 
the  finish  of  the  war  France  is  going  to  find  herself 
placed  in  a  new  and  complex  economic  situation, 
as  will  also  be  the  case  with  those  nations  bound  to 
her  by  definite  ties.  Practicable  suggestions  for 
meeting  this  coming  situation  can  be  supplied  only 
by  men  able  to  see  and  point  out  with  equal  frank- 
ness both  its  most  encouraging  and  its  most  alarm- 
ing aspects.  Nothing  will  be  accomplished  by 
those  who  are  too  easily  satisfied  by  cut-and-dried 
formulae,  who  allow  themselves  to  be  hypnotized  by 
fixed  optimistic  or  pessimistic  theories.  The  fu- 
ture is  neither  easy  nor  desperate.     Only,  more 

63 


64     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

than  at  any  previous  period,  the  future  will  depend 
upon  ourselves. 

The  situation  as  it  exists  today  contains  the  germ 
of  a  brilliant  tomorrow;  it  holds  also  the  seeds  of 
ruin.  It  contains  possibilities  that  make  one's  heart 
leap  as  before  the  dawn  of  certain  victory.  But 
before  us,  too,  may  lie  the  abyss.  Still,  there  is  a 
bridge  by  which  we  may  cross  it. 

How  shall  we  set  to  work — noWy  we  and  our 
friends?  For  from  the  day  that  peace  is  declared, 
all  those  energies  that  are  now  diverted  to  the  work 
of  death  and  destruction  will  be  clamouring  to  take 
up  life's  work  in  full  measure,  without  losing  a 
moment.  We  shall  merit  small  thanks  from  those 
who  are  fighting  if  we  have  made  ready  nothing 
against  their  return  save  shouts  of  joy.  It  is 
their  right  to  expect  more  than  that  of  our  fore- 
sight. 

Never  before  has  man  been  faced  with  a  future 
so  pregnant  with  possibilities.  Now,  possibilities 
entail  responsibilities.  And  what  is  first  and  fore- 
most plain  and  inescapable  before  our  eyes  is  the 
great  responsibility  that  will  rest  upon  France  and 
her  true  friends.  It  is  no  new  responsibility.  We 
recognized  and  assumed  it  long  ago,  at  whatever 
cost  to  us.  It  will  continue.  Who  wants  to  share 
it  with  us? 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         65 

Our  prestige  has  been  restored.  Frenchmen  of 
today  will  have  a  far  easier  task  than  those  of 
before  the  war,  whose  mission  was  to  carry  on 
France's  work  somehow  or  other,  throughout  a 
world  rendered  indifferent  and  sceptical  by  our 
defeats  of  1870.  They  succeeded,  at  that;  but 
they  were  few.  Those  of  tomorrow  will  be  legion. 
Like  the  sturdy  workers  that  they  are,  resourceful 
lads,  keen  for  their  jobs,  they  will  go  forth  to  the 
four  comers  of  the  earth,  after  playing  their  part — 
and  what  a  part! — in  freeing  the  world  through 
force  of  arms,  to  sow  the  good  seed  of  their  labours. 
And  reaping  the  harvest  to  follow,  France  will  arise, 
rich. 

For  this  too  we  must  say,  frankly  and  simply: 
"France  must  be  rich."  Therein  lies  the  remedy 
for  all  her  dangers  and  her  ills — infant  mortality, 
tuberculosis,  and  kindred  scourges.  Our  valiant 
little  family  groups,  endowed  with  all  the  virtues 
though  they  be,  are  frequently  crushed  beneath  ma- 
terial difficulties,  which,  being  excessive  and  over- 
whelming, go  not  at  all  to  develop  character. 

Similarly,  it  is  for  lack  of  money  to  buy  better 
milk,  for  lack  of  money  to  instal  bathrooms,  to 
live  more  out  of  doors,  to  buy  sports,  technical  edu- 
cation, recreation — for  all  these  things  are  to  be 
had  for  money — it  is  for  lack  of  this  money  that  too 


66     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

many  of  our  children  die,  too  many  of  our  gifted 
young  people  have  to  stop  midway  in  their  educa- 
tion, too  many  of  our  families  go  downhill,  too 
many  of  our  intellectual  and  moral  resources  wither 
away  before  they  have  bloomed.  We  must  tell 
things  as  they  are.  Pierre  Hamp  writes:  "We 
are  face  to  face  with  this  moral  necessity:  France 
must  be  rich." 

Now  the  world  has  everything  to  gain  by  seeing 
to  it  that  the  fruit  in  France's  garden  does  not  dry 
up,  and  the  world  is  well  aware  of  it.  France  is  no 
greedy  power,  undertaking  to  dominate  through 
numbers,  through  intrusion  and  invasion,  and 
against  whom  the  world  must  ever  be  on  its  guard. 
France  is  a  well-spring  of  creative  power,  a  land 
of  spiritual,  scientific,  and  social  experiments  and 
experiences.  All  mankind  suffers  a  little  by  her 
distress,  and  profits  by  her  prosperity.  Let  her 
emerge  rich  from  the  great  effort  she  is  about  to  put 
forth,  and  those  who  go  to  her  will  find  her  happier. 
Those  who  have  been  wont  to  look  to  her  for  in- 
spiration will  find  an  .even  more  abundant  treasure 
within  her  gates.  Those  who  trade  with  her  will 
have  a  chance  both  to  give  and  receive  more. 

What  are  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  this  pros- 
perity?    Our  small  population?     Certainly   not. 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         67 

Inferior  numbers  are  a  menace  in  case  of  war — we 
know  that  only  too  well!  But  on  the  other  hand 
the  nation  overdensely  populated  is  the  one  that 
finds  itself  handicapped  in  the  attempt  to  assign 
congenial  work  to  all  its  citizens. 

No,  the  obstacles  can  be  reduced  to  two  funda- 
mental ones:  First,  the  world's  imperfect  informa- 
tion about  us  and  our  ways,  partly  through  our  own 
fault;  second,  some  mistaken  and  prejudiced  indi- 
vidual viewpoints  that  especially  characterized  our 
fellow-countrymen  of  the  past  half-century.  It  is 
to  overcome  the  first  of  these  handicaps  that  The 
New  France  magazine  has  undertaken  its  task,  a 
task  long  awaited  and  long  called-for.^  I  wish  here 
to  say  a  few  additional  words  as  to  the  other 
obstacle  to  our  expansion. 

Mistaken  viewpoints  on  the  part  of  individuals, 
I  said.  Indeed,  henceforth  it  is  vitally  important 
that  every  one  of  us  assume  his  responsibilities  to 
the  full,  and  rely  as  little  as  possible  upon  the  State 
and  public  organizations.     We  are,  as  is  also  the 

1  These  lines  were  written  for  the  magazine,  New  France, 
and  published  in  its  first  issue,  August,  1917.  The  purpose  of 
the  magazine  is  to  prepare  for  the  future  by  giving  expression 
to  Franco- American  ideas  upon  commercial  developments  and 
to  promote  the  spirit  of  practical  co-operation  between  the 
two  countries.  The  editors  are  Denys  Amiel,  Swinburne  Hale 
and  Deems  Taylor,  and  its  address  is  165  Broadway,  New 
York. 


68    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

United  States,  an  individualist  nation.  Let  us  be 
so,  frankly  and  utterly.  Above  all,  let  us  pro- 
mote personal  intercourse,  the  relations  of  man 
to  man — particularly  among  the  younger  men, 
who  will  be  especially  unfettered  in  their  future 
activities. 

Let  me  repeat:  what  will  save  us  is  an  intensive 
development  of  a  personal  sense  of  responsibility. 
Man  must  consent  to  being  judged,  not  according  to 
what  he  is  or  what  he  can  do,  but  by  what  he  has 
actually  done,  what  values  he  is  actually  creating. 
This  method  is  unjust,  possibly;  but  the  world  has 
no  time  to  learn  others.  Now  the  French  have 
always  kept  their  good  qualities  below  the  surface, 
in  the  form,  rather,  of  potentialities.  Travelling 
through  Germany  in  1913,  I  saw  clearly  that  the 
prosperity  of  that  empire  was  due,  not  so  much  to 
its  organization — and  still  less  to  any  exceptional 
qualities  of  the  German — as  to  a  patient  and  pains- 
taking development  of  every  resource. 

We  French  have  chosen  rather  to  keep  our  re- 
sources locked  up,  to  hold  them  in  reserve,  like  the 
hidden  treasure  that  economists  call  "unproductive 
wealth."  Among  prosperous  peoples,  the  secret  of 
success  lies  not  in  such  and  such  a  particular  qual- 
ity, to  be  found  nowhere  else;  it  lies  in  mobilizing 
all  their  capabilities.     And  so  reforms  must  be 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         69 

accomplished,  not  through  the  State,  nor  by  means 
of  treaties,  but  through  the  medium  of  every  indi- 
vidual intelligence,  every  will. 

Understand  me  clearly:  I  do  not  set  up  material 
success  as  the  only  goal  of  French  activities ;  but,  if 
one  be  an  intelligent  Frenchman,  engaged  in  busi- 
ness, a  wide  ambition  is  his  first  duty. 

Now,  unless  we  entirely  misunderstand  the  ten- 
dencies of  our  younger  men,  that  is  on  the  whole 
just  the  direction  in  which  the  rising  generation  is 
tending.  Ignorance  of  other  countries,  which  so 
held  back  our  predecessors,  had  already  begun  to 
disappear  during  the  past  ten  years,  thanks  to  nu- 
merous outside  influences,  to  an  exchange  of  views 
that  was  continuously  developing — an  intellectual 
exchange  with  England,  America,  and  Russia. 
This  intermingling  has  been  hastened  during  the 
course  of  the  war  by  the  presence  of  so  many  for- 
eign armies  upon  our  soil,  and  by  the  countless 
personal  relations  that  necessarily  resulted.  Of 
course,  you  will  always  find  youths  who  are  deter- 
mined not  to  learn  anything,  but  there  will  be  fewer 
and  fewer  of  them  in  the  future,  and  they  will  be 
less  and  less  proud  of  their  ignorance.  On  the 
whole,  it  would  seem  that,  as  far  as  ignorance  of 
the  outside  world  is  concerned,  France  is  by  no 


70     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

means  the  least  informed.     But  we  must  not  forget 
that  the  best  is  expected  from  us. 

There  is  one  essential  element  of  the  French  char- 
acter, much  more  inherent  in  us  than  ignorance  of 
other  peoples,  which,  it  seems  to  me,  explains  the 
cause  of  certain  of  our  failings  and  at  the  same  time 
offers  us  our  best  hope  for  co-operation  between  the 
young  men  of  America  and  France.  That  is,  our 
tendency  to  criticise — a  certain  intellectual,  critical, 
negative  tendency,  which  too  easily  turns  into  mock- 
ery. It  is  the  faculty  to  which  the  best  of  us  owe 
their  sense  of  proportion  and  the  clear  thinking  for 
which  they  are  noted.  Now,  the  American  is  gifted 
with  precisely  the  opposite  faculty — a  positive,  en- 
terprising tendency  to  go  after  immediate  results. 
He  is  embarrassed  by  very  few  hesitations,  since  up 
to  the  present  the  obstacles  before  him  in  his  own 
country,  which  is  always  a  fruitful  field  for  new 
enterprises,  have  been  much  less  serious  than  in 
ours. 

Today,  however,  conditions  in  the  two  countries 
are  growing  more  and  more  alike.  America  is  no 
longer  a  limitless  field  open  to  virgin  energy,  while 
old  Europe  is  becoming  committed  to  a  policy  of 
hasty  reconstruction  and  wide  enterprise.  Thus 
our  differences  are  being  levelled;  and  thus  may 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         71 

each  of  us  profit  more  and  more  by  the  experience 
and  methods  of  the  other. 

And  so  a  double  obligation  rests  upon  us:  for 
America,  that  of  reconciling  its  methods  with  new 
conditions;  for  France,  that  of  adopting  new  ways 
of  putting  to  work  the  vast  treasure  of  past  experi- 
ence, knowledge,  and  resourcefulness  that  the  ages 
have  bequeathed  to  our  race.  If  both  of  us  will 
resolve  to  combine  this  inherited  craft  skill  and 
science  of  life  witli  your  audacity,  your  passion  for 
visible  and  immediate  results,  little  success  will  re- 
main beyond  our  reach. 

After  all,  our  activities  rest  upon  a  common  base, 
upon  a  feeling  which  tends  to  bring  us  together  and 
through  which  we  seem,  to  me,  to  be  blood-brothers 
among  the  peoples  of  tlie  world.  That  feeling  is 
the  love  of  work  for  its  own  sake,  love  of  the  task 
that  we  have  freely  chosen.  Our  devotion  to  this 
work  is  limitless,  provided  always  that  our  right  to 
a  free  choice  be  respected.  Now  it  is  just  this  right 
of  free  choice  that  characterizes  the  "kind  of  world" 
in  which  we  want  to  live,  as  opposed  to  the  super- 
disciplined  "State"  world  in  which  our  enemies 
want  to  make  us  live — a  kind  of  world  that  suits 
them,  maybe,  but  that  inspires  us  with  little  but 
horror. 


72     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

We  believe,  Americans  and  French  alike  (and 
here  I  speak  above  all  in  the  name  of  the  younger 
generation),  in  the  free  choice  of  a  lifework.  We 
believe  that  into  this  chosen  calling  one  can  put  the 
best  of  himself,  serving  whole-heartedly  because  he 
knows  that  there  exists  no  better  or  more  fruitful 
field  for  the  forces  at  his  disposal.  We  believe  that 
once  our  efficiency  is  brought  to  its  highest  through 
this  faith  in  our  work,  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from 
the  competition  of  any  one.  We  believe  that  a 
calling  freely  chosen  is  like  a  wife  chosen  from 
among  all  women :  that,  like  her,  it  will  bear  us  fine 
children. 

What  an  ugly,  vulgar,  stupid  idea  it  is,  to  con- 
ceive of  the  whole  of  human  activity  as  a  pitched 
battle  where  the  victory  of  one  necessarily  entails 
the  ruin  of  others.  It  is  a  wom-out  and  thick-witted 
theory,  worthy  only  of  jealous  and  greedy  peoples. 
France  and  America  have  never  admitted  its  truth, 
knowing  full  well  that  the  world  profited  by  every 
step  they  made  forward.  They  have  always  felt 
that,  in  reality,  nations  should  be  set,  not  one 
against  the  other,  but  side  by  side,  so  as  to  face 
together  the  increasingly  complex  problems  of  life. 
(Thus  did  Peguy  describe  the  philosophers,  and 
point  out  the  true  significance  of  their  competitions 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         73 

and  quarrels.)  It  is  thus  that  we  conceive  the 
energies  of  the  world  drawn  up  to  weather  the  fear- 
ful crisis  that  has  arrayed  them  together  against  a 
common  danger.  If  the  world,  co-operating  to 
assure  the  necessary  defeat  of  Germany's  lust  for 
conquest,  has  been  able  to  unite  upon  this  negative 
program,  what  is  to  prevent  it  from  organizing 
tomorrow  upon  a  positive,  lasting  basis?  Why  can 
it  not  unite  and  found  itself  upon  the  rock  of  the 
most  enduring  sentiment  that  is  rooted  in  the  heart 
of  man :  the  love  of  one^s  own  handiwork? 

It  is  the  young  men  of  America  and  France  who 
shall  offer  us  not  one,  but  millions  of  examples  of 
the  goal  that  may  be  attained,  the  results  that  may 
be  realized  through  a  voluntary  alliance  like  ours, 
when  sprung  into  full  life. 

Love  for  work —  Do  you  realize  how  deeply 
that  love  is  rooted  in  the  Frenchman's  heart? 

A  writer,  Pierre  Hamp,  has  given  strong,  vivid, 
accurate  descriptions  of  die  labourious  life  of 
France.  He  makes  us  discover  the  molecular  proc- 
ess of  the  trades  and  industries,  a  process  which  is 
not  much  known.  He  himself,  like  Jack  London, 
has  had  a  long  direct  experience  of  the  things  he  de- 
scribes, before  he  became  an  Inspector  of  Labour. 
His  former  work  includes  several  books:  Le  Rail 


74    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

(he  was  then  a  railway  man),  Marie  Fraiche  (he 
had  been  a  sailor  too) ,  Vin  de  Champagne  (he  knew 
the  details  of  its  whole  fabrication) .  But  I  want  to 
present  only  his  three  little,  dense  booklets,  pub- 
lished during  the  war.  Perhaps  they  are  the  most 
valuable  contribution  to  knowledge  of  the  actual 
conditions  among  the  civil  working  class  during 
the  crisis.  You  will  find  there  much  which  will 
surprise  you.  .  .  . 

The  first  of  these  books,  Le  Travail  Invincible,  is 
a  picture  of  the  conditions  of  work  in  Northern 
France. 

"Flanders  had  seen  the  passing  of  the  great  Bel- 
gian migration,  pushed  on  by  the  German  army — 
flax-pickers  of  the  Courtrai  region,  still  carrying 
their  blue  wallets,  straggling  crowds  of  women 
dragging  along  tired  children.  In  their  wake,  the 
Flemings  of  France  were  leaving  also,  fleeing  their 
villages  wrecked  by  German  shells.  The  fugitives 
filled  the  railroad  trains  to  overflowing,  crammed, 
standing,  into  coal  cars.  Across  Flanders,  from 
La  Bassee  to  the  Yser,  was  one  great  battle.  The 
Germans  fell  back,  freeing  Hazebrouck,  Bailleul, 
and  Armentieres.  But  their  trenches  stretched  be- 
fore this  treasure  house :  Lille,  Roubaix,  and  Tour- 
coing. 

"In  all  this  upheaval  and  destruction  what  be- 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION        75 

came  of  industry?  Factories  all  over  the  region 
had  been  damaged  by  artillery  fire.  Thousands  of 
skilled  workmen  had  been  driven  into  exile — an 
exile  often  deadlier,  through  overcrowding,  starva- 
tion, and  cold,  than  the  bombardment  suffered  by 
those  who  stayed  behind.  But  no  sooner  were  the 
Germans  gone  than  the  people  began  to  come  back 
and  resume  work.  The  industrial  'front'  kept 
pace  with  the  firing  line.  This  movement  will  be 
a  magnificent  one  to  follow  in  some  future  system- 
atized history  of  labour  during  the  war.  In  the 
valley  of  the  Lys,  the  weaving  mills  stopped  work 
on  the  6th  of  October,  halted  by  the  bombardment. 
On  October  15th  tlie  Germans  were  repulsed;  by 
the  25th,  the  cloth-looms  were  whirring  and  clash- 
ing again  in  the  mills.  Whenever  their  noise 
stopped,  at  lunch-hour  and  at  night,  one  could  hear 
the  musketry  fire  in  the  trenches. 

"When  the  German  army  bombards  an  open 
town,  a  town  whose  streets  end  in  the  furrows  of  the 
fields,  it  claims  to  be  accomplishing  the  legitimate 
military  objects  of  striking  demoralization  and  ter- 
ror into  the  civilian  population.  This  is  so,  at  the 
first  bombardment.  Those  who  are  terrified  flee. 
By  the  time  the  second  bombardment  takes  place 
the  town  has  taken  its  precautions  and  has  com- 
fortably fitted  up  its  cellars.     By  the  tenth  bom- 


76    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

bardment  it  is  a  town  inured  to  war.  The  persist- 
ence of  the  German  artilleryman  has  created  a  new 
virtue;  under  habitual  fire  the  civilian  population 
displays  the  firmness  of  veteran  troops. 

"The  cellars  are  used  for  sleeping,  the  best  fitted 
having  a  fame  of  their  own.  Some  of  them  are 
comfortably  furnished,  with  cloth  hangings  on  the 
walls.  The  cellar  windows  are  blocked  with  sand 
bags  or  bulwarks,  each  of  the  latter  consisting  of 
two  timbers  with  the  crack  between  them  stuffed 
with  rubbish.  These  cave  fortifications  encroach 
upon  the  sidewalks  all  along  the  streets. 

"The  night  bombardment  is  the  less  dangerous. 
By  day,  blood  is  more  quickly  shed  when  the  town  is 
caught  unawares.  Summer  is  the  season  of  street 
games  for  the  little  ones,  and  the  first  shell  of  the 
morning  may  fall  near  three  children  who  are 
quietly  playing  together  before  their  house.  Their 
mothers  had  said  'Don't  go  far!'  and  they  have 
been  very  obedient;  but  they  will  never  return  to 
their  mothers'  knees. 

"The  town  that  no  longer  knows  fear  feels  indig- 
nation. The  tiny  corpse  of  a  child  instils  a  horror 
of  Germany  within  the  breasts  of  those  who  follow 
it  to  the  grave.  No  more  may  her  citizens  come 
here  to  trade  or  to  supply  machinery." 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         77 

And  in  the  fields  the  peasant  shows  the  same 
faithfulness  to  the  task: 

"English  and  German  shells  pass  over  the  tilled 
fields,  and  tlie  husbandman  can  hear  the  rifle  fire 
in  the  trenches.  Ever  since  November  it  has  been 
coming  from  exactly  the  same  places.  Now,  how- 
ever, it  seems  as  though  the  subterranean  battle  had 
moved  further  off;  the  noise  is  muffled.  As  the 
ears  of  grain  grow,  the  sound  of  rifle  shots  is  corre- 
spondingly absorbed  by  the  thickness  of  the  ver- 
dure. 

"This  labourer  is  unconquerable.  The  tilling  of 
the  eardi  imposes  an  obligation  which  nothing  can 
remove,  not  even  the  risk  of  death.  For  the  man  of 
the  fields,  war  is  only  a  passing  storm.  He  bows 
before  it,  and  continues  his  task,  big  with  eternity." 

Pierre  Hamp  adds:  "There  is  a  humble  great- 
ness about  these  civilians  who  hold  so  doggedly  to 
their  everyday  jobs,  these  factory  women  who  brave 
shells  to  go  to  work.  Next  to  the  soldier  who  de- 
fends the  soil,  the  factoiy  girl  who  sticks  to  her 
work  is  the  one  who  makes  France  immortal.  .  .  . 
The  moral  value  of  work  increases  in  war-time, 
when  the  idleness  of  non-combatants  might  easily 
injure  the  morale  of  the  whole  race,  and  might 
lower  the  earning  capacity  of  the  labouring  classes 


78     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

through  loss  of  skill.  These  working  girls  who,  as 
they  put  it,  don't  want  to  get  out  of  practice,  and  go 
on  at  their  task,  are  saving  the  basic  power  of  the 
country — a  thing  that  must  never  perish.  War  is 
transitory.     Labour  is  eternal." 

And  he  concludes:  "Man's  purest  grandeur 
resides  in  plying  well  his  trade.  It  is  not  enthusi- 
asm tliat  he  needs  for  this,  but  professional  con- 
science." 

I  gave  long  quotations,  because  I  find  this  one 
of  the  most  valuable  war  accounts  that  I  know. 

The  second  booklet  is  perhaps  the  richest  in  docu- 
mentation on  the  new  conditions  of  work,  much 
nearer  to  American  conditions  because  of  the 
scarcity  of  men.  (That  is  why,  after  the  war,  we 
shall  have  so  much  to  learn  from  your  methods.) 
Already  Hamp  is  able  to  foresee  the  reach  of  pos- 
sible application  of  these  methods. 

"The  American  method  is  above  all  applicable 
to  industries  turning  out  large  quantities  of  the 
same  pattern  of  objects — automobiles,  typewriters, 
or  shells — and  where  the  total  amount  of  work  in- 
volved in  making  a  product  that  is  always  unvary- 
ing can  be  subdivided  into  separate  operations. 

"It  would  be  fantastic  to  attempt  to  apply  the 
American  method  unaltered  to  the  French  nation. 
It  must  be  gallicized  and  made  over  to  suit  our 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         79 

labouring-class  mental  processes.  Experiment 
alone  will  show  where  it  can  be  welded  to  our  sys- 
tem and  where  there  are  gaps  to  bridge.  It  would 
break  down  everything  to  apply  a  concept  based 
and  calculated  solely  upon  new  forces  and  ideas 
to  a  society  permeated  with  old  forces  and  tra- 
ditions." 

So  there  will  be  an  adjustment,  and  it  will  require 
much  attention  and  mutual  understanding.  Hamp 
then  treats  tlie  difficult  matter  of  emigration, 
which,  too,  demands  unprejudiced  minds  in  order 
to  be  solved  according  to  the  actual  require- 
ments of  a  country.  Then  he  reveals  what  the 
work  of  the  women  has  been,  during  the  war, 
and  what  tremendous  step  has  been  made  in  that 
respect.  "Woman  has  not  suddenly  become 
courageous  with  the  war.  She  merely  continues  to 
be  so.  Having  been  already  engaged  in  a  great 
variety  of  occupations,  she  had  some  preliminary 
training  when  she  turned  to  metallurgy  for  war  pur- 
poses." In  the  shell  factories  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  them  are  now  working.  Hamp  notices  that 
even  there  they  remain  women,  and  this  is  together 
charming  and  melancholic. 

"They  bind  their  heads  with  a  piece  of  linen  to 
protect  their  hair  from  the  dust  of  glowing  iron, 
incidentally  leaving  a  curl  or  two  to  wander — for 


80     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

in  all  her  tasks,  hard  as  they  may  be,  nothing  will 
take  away  from  woman  her  desire  to  be  attractive. 
The  instinct  for  beauty  is  unconquerable  in  her. 
Even  here,  where  woman  is  identified  with  man  in 
her  work,  and  where  the  social  necessities  have 
tended  to  deprive  her  of  her  sex,  she  preserves  the 
remnants  of  her  charm,  and  keeps  on  smiling  to 
save  a  world  that  is  destroying  itself. 

"No  workshop,  however  dusty,  hot  or  smelly,  has 
ever  conquered  the  desire  of  woman  to  remain  a 
woman.  Exhausted,  overheated,  and  pale,  she  still 
smiles.  She  accomplishes  this  double  and  terrible 
task — to  work  as  much  as  a  man  and  at  the  same 
time  preserve  the  softness  of  the  world  and  per- 
petuate the  race. 

"It  was  formerly  thought  that  woman's  care  could 
not  be  trusted  when  very  exact  measurements  had 
to  be  made,  but  the  eyes  of  an  embroiderer  are 
sharper  than  those  of  a  man,  and  machines  for  mak- 
ing light  artillery  presented  few  difficulties  to  her. 
The  adjustment  and  testing  of  a  shell  fuse  require 
careful  attention;  no  defects  are  tolerated.  The 
adjuster  has  to  discover  errors  that  the  workmen 
have  overlooked.  This  delicate  work  is  just  the 
reverse  of  the  heavy  forging,  as  the  working  woman 
uses  only  her  eyes  and  the  tips  of  her  fingers. 
Long  tables  are  covered  with  copper  pieces  ar- 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         81 

ranged  in  perfect  order.  The  women  must  make 
sure  that  every-  piece  is  in  perfect  condition  and 
exact  in  calibre,  by  means  of  delicate  steel  gauges, 
for  the  slightest  defect  may  prevent  the  shell  from 
exploding  or  make  it  explode  in  the  guns.  No  mag- 
nifying glass  is  used  for  this  operation,  lest  the  con- 
sequent exaggeration  of  mere  scratches  should  make 
them  appear  as  serious  defects  and  cause  all  shells 
to  be  rejected.  The  naked  eye  must  suffice,  and  a 
sharp  look-out  is  needed  to  discover  all  the  tool 
marks.  Since  this  means  a  great  strain  on  the 
eyes  all  such  work  is  done  by  daylight  for  fear  of 
errors  resulting  from  fatigue. 

"In  a  shop  where  844  women  are  employed,  only 
three  defective  adjustments  out  of  80,000  fuses 
were  noted  by  the  inspectors  and,  after  examina- 
tion, only  one  fuse  was  discarded.  Thus  in  such 
an  amount  of  delicate  work  requiring  so  much  at- 
tention, only  one  mistake  was  discovered — one  in 
80,000 — in  a  day  chosen  at  random  by  the  inspec- 
tors.    Sometimes  tliere  is  not  a  single  mistake." 

Her  salary  has  grown,  and  if  it  seems  low  com- 
pared with  American  prices,  still  it  is  much  higher 
than  the  former  wages  of  a  dressmaker.  It  is  now 
about  one  dollar  a  day  for  tlie  easier  work.  Better 
skilled  workers  may  reach  9  francs  for  ten  hours. 

"Women  from  all  classes  of  society  have  applied 


82     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

for  jobs  in  metal  working  for  war  purposes.  The 
offices  of  workshops  know  of  women  who  walked 
by  ten  times  before  they  decided  to  step  in,  and 
finally  did  so  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  on  account  of 
their  prejudice  against  working  with  their  hands. 
One  of  them  was  a  Belgian  lady  of  leisure  whose 
fortune  was  left  in  Brussels;  another,  the  wife  of  a 
South  American  bank  director.  In  a  few  days,  un- 
accustomed as  these  women  were  to  such  work, 
they  had  learned  how  to  handle  machine  tools.  In 
a  month  they  had  become  skilful.  The  adaptation 
to  work  of  women's  delicate  hands  does  not  require 
a  long  time.  Embroidery,  sewing  and  household 
occupations  have  all  accustomed  them  to  the  hand- 
ling of  materials.     The  power  to  work  is  in  them. 

"The  hands  of  so  many  men  never  touch  anything 
but  cigarettes  and  penholders.  This  war  has  re- 
vealed the  great  adaptability  of  woman  to  manual 
labour.  She  succeeds  in  all  trades,  both  in  the 
hardest  and  in  the  most  delicate. 

"Out  of  4,473  women  workers  brought  together 
in  a  shell  factory  in  Lyons,  there  are  registered : 

1,326  housewives  and  servants; 
1,320  dressmakers; 

690  shop  workers; 

360  office  girls; 
23  stenographers; 

349  lacemakers,  weavers  and   box-makers; 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         83 

143  of  various  trades; 
236  without  any  profession; 
16  mechanics. 

"These  women,  among  whom  five  per  cent,  only 
had  any  previous  experience  with  some  minor  form 
of  metal  working,  have  in  a  few  months,  thanks  to 
cleverly  devised  machinery,  developed  a  strong  and 
efficient  working  body.  They  have  replaced  44.9 
per  cent,  of  the  men  in  a  total  of  9,985  employes." 

Of  course,  immense  social  consequences  are  to 
result  from  such  possibilities  which  woman  dis- 
covered in  herself.  "A  woman  whose  living  is  in- 
sured by  employment  will  feel  independent  in  her 
home.  How  will  fairly  well-paid  labour  react  upon 
the  woman's  heart?"  There  is  a  conflict  between 
motherhood  and  work.  Pierre  Hamp's  conclusion 
brings  a  very  enlightening  interpretation  of  the 
present  situation: 

"Our  national  interest  of  the  moment  is  directly 
opposed  to  our  permanent  national  interest,  to  what 
really  constitutes  the  perpetuation  of  France:  a 
sufficient  number  of  Frenchmen.  A  proper  con- 
cern for  our  prosperity  demands  that  we  turn  our- 
selves deliberately  into  a  country  of  immigration, 
attracting  healthy  stock  and  reducing  our  neces- 
sary working  forces  as  far  as  possible  by  the  in- 
genuity of  mechanical  inventions^'* 


84     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Here  again,  we  find  the  necessity  of  carefully 
adopting  American  example.  For  this  we  are  con- 
fident in  the  infinite  resources  of  improvisation 
which  are  in  the  race: 

"This  labouring  force  of  France,  which  must  al- 
ways be  organized  in  times  of  need,  has  had  its 
total  strength  calculated  by  the  war,  has  shown  its 
full  vitality  and  flexibility.  Victorious,  it  will 
have  learned  through  perils  its  possibilities  for 
triumph  in  time  of  peace.  All  that  it  was  called 
upon  to  do,  it  has  done.  It  will  go  on  doing  so. 
Experienced  by  an  eff"ort  that  aroused  it  to  activ- 
ity from  the  first  rifle  to  the  last  hammer,  the  na- 
tion learned  that  it  could  devour  the  maddened 
enemy  with  its  cannon  and  reap  a  triumphant  for- 
tune from  its  labour.  From  France's  war  strength 
will  spring  her  peace  strength.  She  has  been 
through  an  experience  that  has  revealed  her  to  her- 
self. She  will  know  how  to  make  her  strength  a 
lasting  one  by  maintaining  for  her  industry  the 
power  called  forth  by  battle.  Her  organization  for 
military  victory  will  also  help  to  create  her  in- 
dustrial rank.  And  may  she  make  peace  with 
the  same  spirit  with  which  she  has  made  war. 
Every  victory  is  within  her.  From  France  the 
warrior  country  will  arise  France  the  labouring 
country." 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         85 

Hamp's  third  pamplet,  "La  Victoire  de  la 
France  sur  les  Frangais,"  is  more  of  a  program  and 
an  affirmation  of  general  ideas  about  the  future  of 
France.  He  points  out  the  dangers,  and  outlines 
the  remedies.  The  victory  over  alcohol  is  won,  if 
the  measures  taken  against  it  in  time  of  war  are 
maintained.  But  France  wants  a  reform  in  her 
habits  of  mind  and  methods  of  action.  A  victory 
of  the  Frenchman  over  himself,  or  rather  of  the 
immortal  spirit  of  France  over  temporary  hesita- 
tions. This  reform  was  rapidly  preparing  before 
the  war.  "  May  the  young  men  who  have  helped 
to  write  Victory  upon  the  banners  of  their  regi- 
ments strive  with  equal  might  to  place  the  names  of 
foreign  branches  upon  the  letterheads  of  our  com- 
mercial houses." 

And  there  is  an  expression  of  unlimited  hope  to 
be  found  in  his  last  conclusions: 

"The  power  latent  within  us  is  unknown  even  to 
ourselves.  We  bear  within  our  breasts  triumphs 
as  yet  unawakened.  Our  strength  in  this  war  has 
surprised  ourselves.  Under  the  shock  of  reality 
we  have  discovered  anew  our  ancient  valour  and 
the  strength  of  our  limbs.  France  is  far  above  the 
conception  that  the  world  had  formed  of  her  and 
tliat  she  had  formed  of  herself.  Let  us  venerate 
this  mysterious  power  of  our  race,  whence  spring 


86     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

victories  for  men  to  wonder  at.  .  .  .  Let  us  not 
doubt  ourselves.  We  are  perfectly  capable  of  tre- 
mendous and  prolonged  effort.  We  can  conquer 
all  within  ourselves  that  threatens  France." 


Of  course,  I  realize  that  much  that  I  have  said 
about  the  possibilities  of  our  concrete  co-operation 
is  abstract  and  vague,  and  that  the  young  American 
who  reads  me  has  no  taste  for  indulging  in  uncer- 
tain schemes,  but  wants  immediate  instances,  or  at 
least  instances  likely  to  be  valuable  immediately 
after  the  war.  He  may  argue  that  everybody 
should  then  make  good,  and  ask  if  French  co-opera- 
tion will  offer  a  chance  to  him  rather  than  to  his 
grandchildren. 

Let  me  show  that  I  had  some  immediate  instance 
in  mind.  It  is  a  local  and  definite  one,  and  I  give 
it  because  I  happen  to  know  the  subject  well.  I 
suppose  that  other  Frenchmen,  if  questioned,  can 
give  many  instances  like  this  one,  which  has  to  be 
generalized. 

I  have  travelled  on  five  occasions  in  tlie  Balkans, 
especially  through  Serbia  and  the  Southern  Slav 
countries.  These  people  are  the  only  strong  ob- 
stacle to  Pan-Germanism  on  its  way  to  the  East. 
They  are  sturdy  and  fine.     They  are  warriors  and 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         87 

artists.  They  love  their  nation  and  have  decided 
that  she  shall  not  die.  They  have  suffered  from 
the  war  more  tlian  any  other  people,  except,  per- 
haps, tlie  Armenians  and  the  Poles.  But  there  are 
still  about  12  millions  of  them,  resolved  to  struggle 
ceaselessly  until  they  obtain  freedom  for  their 
Jugoslav  (Southern  Slav)  nation.  That  is  a  sim- 
ple and  irresistible  aspiration,  and,  like  America, 
Italy  and  Switzerland  in  older  times,  they  will  suc- 
ceed because  their  will  is  steadfast  and  their  oppo- 
nents are  changing  their  artificial  policies  according 
to  circumstances.  Their  situation  is  like  Bohe- 
mia's, and  Poland's.  When  these  people  are  free, 
then  Europe  will  have  a  chance  of  peace,  not  be- 
fore. That  much  even  the  diplomats  admit  today. 
So  there  is  an  increasing  probability  of  an  early 
and  righteous  settlement  of  this  national  question.^ 
Now  look  at  this  Jugoslavia  made  free.  It  in- 
cludes Serbia  restored,  and  the  Austro-Hungarian 
provinces  which  are  almost  entirely  peopled  by 
Serbians  and  their  brothers,  the  Croats  and 
Slovenes.  It  extends  from  the  vicinity  of  Italian 
Trieste  to  the  province  of  Temesvar,  from  the  Adri- 
atic coast  to  the  Bulgarian  frontier,  where  the 
Orient  racially  begins.     Even  if  national  aspira- 

1  See  the  books  of  H.  Wickham  Steed,  R,  W.  Scton-Watson, 
etc. 


88     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

tions  are  not  fully  realized  at  first,  it  will  have 
outlets  on  tlie  Adriatic  Sea,  which  means  direct  and 
free  communication  with  all  Western  nations.  The 
area  of  the  land  is  equal  to  about  one-half  of 
France.  It  contains  many  mines  (the  copper  mines 
at  Bor.  were  the  most  prosperous  in  the  world,  and 
were  exploited  by  a  French  concern),  large  for- 
ests, great  wealtli  in  fruit,  fish,  and  cattle,  and  large 
industries  of  cloth,  embroideries,  silverwork,  etc. 

Jugoslavia  has  been  maintained  for  ages  in  a 
state  economically  backward  because  all  the  forces 
of  the  country  were  employed  in  a  military  strug- 
gle against  invasion  and  resistance  to  oppression. 
Conditions  were  made  as  hard  as  possible  by 
mighty  Austria,  for  fear  that  the  national  spirit 
would  spread  from  free  Serbia  to  oppressed 
Bosnia,  Croatia  and  Dalmatia. 

In  the  near  future,  a  tremendous  economic  ex- 
pansion will  take  place  there.  The  race  is  very 
laborious.  But  the  people  are  poor,  and  lack  the 
technicians  and  the  machines.  Who  will  bring 
them?  Assuredly  not  the  Germans.  Even  before 
this  war  the  Serbians  preferred  to  sacrifice  large 
advantages  to  permitting  themselves  to  be  invaded 
through  economic  participation  on  the  part  of  am- 
bitious and  hostile  countries. 

For  a  similar  reason  they  will  hardly  welcome 


PROMISES  OF  CO-OPERATION         89 

the  rush  of  business  men,  speculators  and  exploiters 
from  some  countries,  although  friendly,  for  they 
are  too  jealous  of  their  national  integrity  to  allow 
important  positions  to  be  occupied  by  foreigners 
who  may  at  some  time  become  exigent  and,  if 
backed  by  their  governments,  jeopardize  the  safety 
of  the  countiy.  Small  nations  have  to  be  cautious 
about  such  things. 

But  from  France  and  from  America  nothing  of 
that  kind  is  to  be  feared — we  could  not  even  dream 
of  territorial  ambitions  in  those  regions.  And  it 
happens  tliat  America  and  France  are  the  only  two 
nations  who  have  accomplished  a  great  deal  for  the 
Southern  Slavs — France,  by  a  long  tradition  of 
friendship,  by  helping  to  rebuild  the  Serbian  army 
at  Corfu  and  maintaining  the  occupation  of  Salon- 
ica,  also  by  welcoming  the  Serbian  refugees  on  her 
territoiy,  and  taking  up  the  education  of  Serbian 
children;  America  by  steady  and  generous  relief 
and  the  sending  of  surgical  and  medical  missions 
who  have  done  most  effective  work. 

After  the  war,  if  my  previsions  are  right,  Franco- 
American  activity  will  find  a  most  favourable 
ground  in  Jugoslavia,  America  bringing  her  meth- 
ods and  material,  France  bringing  the  experience  of 
her  men,  long  used  to  travel  there  and  to  business 
negotiations  with  the  Serbians,  being  entirely  sym- 


90     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

pathetic  to  them  and  having  fought  side  by  side 
with  them. 

But  what  special  interest  will  young  America 
have  in  bringing  resources  of  energy  to  that  part 
of  the  world?  First,  the  opportunities  for  rapid 
success  are  numerous:  reconstruction  of  cities  on 
modem  plans,  undertaking  of  large  harbours,  the 
lumber  industry,  agricultural  improvements,  means 
of  transportation.  The  country  is  healthful  and  the 
peasants  are  intensely  democratic.  Many  young 
men  want  broad  enterprises  and  wish  also  to  live 
within  reasonable  proximity  to  civilized  centres. 
They  and  their  wives  will  appreciate  the  fact  that 
Southern  Slav  territory  is  a  few  hours  from  Italy, 
and  one  day  and  a  half  from  Paris. 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  this  suggestion.  It  is  but 
one  instance  among  many,  of  the  wide  activities 
open  to  American  initiative.  Russia  is  another — 
much  wider,  but  more  distant  from  the  great  cities 
of  Western  Europe.  There  again,  the  true  form 
of  successful  association  would  be  Franco-Ameri- 
can. More  exactly,  young  men  from  France  and 
young  men  from  America,  knowing  each  other  well. 
And  the  same  is  applicable  to  our  colonies. 


IV 

LITERARY  INTERCHANGE 

Forms  of  influence.  Is  external  influence  to  be  welcome? 
American  writers  who  are  known  in  France.  About  French 
criticism.  Translations  of  literature.  Educational  exchanges. 
The  philosophers.  The  literary  treasury  of  contemporary 
France.  Our  masters  and  elders.  Recent  tendencies.  Emile 
Verhaeren's  international  value.  The  new  poets  of  France: 
More  children  of  Walt  Whitman.  Schools,  groups  and  critics. 
The  Reviews.     War  poems.     And  then?     Music  in  France. 

We  have  dealt  with  the  concrete  foundations  and 
structure  of  our  alliance.  Our  material  exchanges 
and  co-operation  will  give  results  little  by  little. 
As  early  as  today  we  may  see  the  effects  of  mu- 
tual intellectual  influence. 

Here  again,  the  field  is  too  wide  to  be  covered  in 
its  entirety.  Even  to  show  the  parallel  evolution 
and  the  mutual  indebtedness  of  American  and 
French  literary  standards  in  the  past  25  years, 
would  be  the  task  of  a  lifetime  and,  when  achieved, 
it  would  have  to  be  started  again. 

So  as  to  grasp  the  present  condition  of  our  liter- 
ary relation,  we  may  specially  concern  ourselves 
with  the  poets.     The  best  of  the  young  poets  sup- 

91 


92     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

ply  the  essential  expression  of  a  generation,  they 
are  usually  in  advance  of  it,  and  they  inspire  the 
period  which  follows.     Moreover,  they  supply  the 
most  conscious  form  of  art  and  that  which  is  most 
closely  connected  with  ethics.     Poets   are  essen- 
tially  initiators,    and   the   literaiy   production   of 
the  following  epoch  largely  depends  upon  them. 
The  work  of  American  orators  and  novelists  might 
have  been  regarded  mainly  as  a  branch  of  Eng- 
lish literature  until  American  poets  came  and  gave 
the  start  to  new  forms  of  expression  and  discov- 
ered   fresh    sources    of    inspiration.     After   them 
there   was    an    original   American   literature.     A 
good  part  of  political  and  social  ideals  is  influ- 
enced by  poets.     This  may  not  be  true  of  the  sad 
epoch  that  preceded  us,  but  it  was  true  of  most 
great  epochs  whose  grandeur  was  often  formulated 
or  even  foretold  by  poets.     The  Italian  and  French 
Renaissance,  the  Italian  Risorgimento  in  the  19th 
century,  the  liberal  agitation  in  Germany   about 
1848,^   the  national  movements   in  India  and   in 
Ireland  had  their  poets  who  were  their  leaders  at 
the  same  time.     In  America,  I  see  the  germ  of  an 
approaching    poetical    expansion    which    may    be 

1  See  the  recent  book  about  Georg  Herweg;h,  the  great  revo- 
lutionary poet  who  fought  Prussianism  all  his  life.  (Recueil 
Sirey,  publisher,  Paris.) 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  93 

splendid.  In  France  what  has  already  been  ac- 
complished I  shall  try  to  sum  up  here.  The  ques- 
tion is.  What  is  and  what  will  be  the  reciprocal  ac- 
tion of  our  writers? 

Let  us  go  back  for  a  while.  The  mere  nomen- 
clature of  your  great  writers  who  had  a  part  in  the 
intellectual  and  estlietical  formation  of  our  own 
would  not  be  so  soon  achieved  as  your  modesty 
might  suppose.  I  was  10  years  old  when  I  read 
Fenimore  Cooper.  I  was  12  when  I  was  presented 
with  Uncle  Toms  Cabin,  15  when  I  knew  Long- 
fellow. At  19  I  read  Poe,  with  the  utmost  ad- 
miration at  the  very  time  that  I  knew  the  works  of 
the  French  Symbolist  school.  I  could  see  what  im- 
mense importance  Edgar  Allan  Poe  had  had  for 
those  pure  artists  against  whom  we  reacted,  but 
from  whom  we  descend  all  die  same.  .  .  .  Poe  had 
strongly  impressed  Baudelaire,  who  translated  his 
tales,  and  Mallarme  did  the  same  for  the  poems. 

I  was  23  when  I  plunged  myself  into  the  Leaves 
of  Grass.  This  succession  is  that  of  decreasing 
popularity.  I  hear  that  S.  Butler  and  Thoreau  are 
being  translated  into  French,  and  that  a  new  French 
edition  of  Whitman  will  soon  appear,  our  best 
writers  having  co-operated  in  the  work  of  transla- 
tion. Some  of  your  other  writers  are  nearly  un- 
known   in    France.     Hawthorne,    Whittier,    Bret 


94     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Harte  have  practically  never  reached  there.  As  for 
the  influence  of  French  writers  on  your  own  pro- 
ductions, I  leave  it  to  American  scholars  to  define. 

The  literature  of  a  country  may  be  influenced, 
from  abroad,  in  two  principal  ways.  First,  by 
foreign  writers  who  are  admired,  absorbed,  imi- 
tated. Second,  by  the  readers  which  are  abroad, 
of  works  from  one's  own  country,  readers  who 
accept  or  reject  those  works.  As  the  majority  of 
foreign  readers  are  informed  and  cultivated,  the 
more  this  last  becomes  important. 

In  the  instance  of  our  two  countries,  this  is  how 
I  understand  our  literary  relations:  The  greatest 
need  for  France  will  be  to  feel  the  abundant,  vigor- 
ous, generous  production  of  your  young  writers 
whose  inspiration  is  related  to  her  own.  If  we 
happen  to  hesitate  they  will  reassure  us,  owing  to 
their  solid  virtue  of  genuine  and  direct  inspiration. 
And  your  writers  themselves  declare  that  they  will 
welcome  the  critical  sanction  of  our  older  literary 
sense. 

Then  there  is  also  that  reciprocal  influence  which 
will  develop  from  the  French  reader  to  the  Ameri- 
can writer.  If  our  relations  hold  their  promise, 
works  written  here  will  be  eagerly  read,  either  in 
English  or  in  translation,  by  our  people,  who  Vv^ill 
see  more  and  more  what  resources  of  vitality  and 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  95 

sincerity  are  in  you.  And  the  French  reader,  when 
his  sympathy  is  once  aroused,  and  his  negative  sense 
withdrawn  a  little,  is  not  too  bad  a  critic.  We  are 
all  of  us  everywhere  too  prone  to  pass  sentence  on 
things  before  we  have  made  acquaintance  with  them. 
But  when  France's  admiration  is  fixed  her  choice  is 
usually  the  right  one.  Perhaps  this  is  because  we 
have  still  some  traces  of  classical  sense  left,  and 
classical  is  to  time  what  universal  is  to  space. 
Thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  good  training  in 
classical  should  prepare  for  a  sound  appreciation 
of  universal  literature. 

Criticism,  applied  to  your  work,  I  propose,  of 
course,  in  a  quite  modest  form.  If  the  French  do 
not  appreciate  a  book  of  yours,  it  does  not  prove 
that  the  book  is  bad.  But  if  they  elect  it,  admire 
it,  love  it,  adopt  and  imitate  it,  and  get  impregnated 
with  it,  as  they  have  in  instances  already,  then  you 
may  be  sure  that  you  have  a  right  to  be  proud  of 
its  author. 

Having  said  this,  is  it  necessary  to  raise  once 
more  the  eternal  question:  Are  influences  good  in 
themselves?  Is  foreign  influence  to  be  desired  or 
to  be  feared?  My  opinion  is  that  of  many  of  our 
contemporaries.  It  is  that  inasmuch  as  you  are 
strong  and  have  faith  and  confidence  in  yourself, 
you  can  welcome  most  unreservedly  the  influences 


96     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

from  abroad,  fearless  that  they  will  carry  you  out 
of  yourself.  Convinced  traditionalists  ought  to  be 
the  first  to  welcome  new  influences,  first  because  our 
very  traditions  (yours  and  mine)  are  largely  made 
of  foreign  influences  which  were  assimilated;  an 
additional  reason  for  such  welcome  is  that  the 
shock  and  criticism  of  the  foreign  thing  give  pre- 
cisely the  opportunity  needed  for  testing  one's  own 
solidity.  And  a  certain,  solid,  faithful,  valuable 
tradition  need  not  be  afraid  of  the  test.  We  real- 
ize that  our  stomach  is  good  enough  to  dare  try 
more  than  one  kind  of  food.  If  we  happen  to 
refuse  some  foreign  dish,  it  may  not  mean  that  it  is 
exactly  perilous,  but  that  it  is  of  bad  taste  or  is 
prepared  with  hands  which  are  not  clean  (I  am 
thinking  of  German  culture  during  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century). 

About  the  benefits  of  this  intellectual  exchange 
between  us,  I  can  already  testify  in  what  concerns 
me,  and  tell  what  encouragement,  what  intense  stim- 
ulation I  have  met  in  your  country,  and  not  only  for 
my  present  task.  What  enthusiastic  confirmation  I 
found  here,  of  the  value  of  the  works  I  admired, 
when  I  compared  my  standards  with  those  of  your 
best  young  writers.  Indeed  I  cannot  yet  measure 
all  that  I  owe  to  those  meetings  and  conversations  in 
New  York,  in  Chicago,  in  Boston,  in  Princeton,  not 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  97 

only  for  tlie  knowledge  gained  of  your  literature, 
but  for  a  better  appreciation  of  my  own  country's 
art.^ 

A  last  answer  to  a  question  which  is  often  asked : 
What  is  the  good  of  translations?  A  translation 
never  gives  the  content  of  the  original  and  is  liable 
to  pervert  and  falsify  the  impression  which  the 
reader  would  get  if  he  knew  its  original  language. 
If  he  cannot  obtain  the  direct  influence  of  the  work, 
for  lack  of  knowing  the  language  in  which  it  is 
written,  then  he  had  better  abstain  from  any  in- 
complete and  delusive  science. 

I  am  quite  willing  to  agree  that  definitively  a 
translation  cannot  be  equal  to  an  original  (although 
it  has  sometimes  proved  to  be  superior).  But  I 
am  obliged  to  confess  that  I  have  received  through 
translations  stimuli  which  were  exceedingly  in- 
tense. The  influence  of  the  Russian  novelists  on 
the  whole  modem  world  has  exerted  itself  almost 
exclusively  through  translations,  often  through  very 
bad  ones.  The  same  in  the  case  of  Ibsen.  The 
translations  from  the  English  into  French  usually 

1  A  step  in  the  work  of  mutual  interchange  is  the  organiza- 
tion of  systematic  sending  of  the  best  reviews  and  books 
published  on  each  side.  Another  is  my  translation  into  French 
of  Miss  A.  Lowell's  work  on  the  Tendencies  in  Modern  Ameri- 
can Poetry  (American  edition  published  by  The  Macmillan 
Co.)-  I  also  intend  to  give  in  France  a  number  of  studies  on 
contemporary  American  writers. 


98     YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

were  good,  and  the  translations  of  Kipling  by  L. 
Fabulet  and  R.  d'Humieres,  were  excellent.  The 
French  version  of  the  Just  So  Stories  is  a  little 
masterpiece. 

I  wish  all  young  writers  indulged  in  the  regular 
practice  of  translation.  It  is  a  wonderful  training 
in  the  use  of  their  own  language.  I  cannot  suffi- 
ciently advise  my  American  friends  that  they  take 
the  French  books  which  they  like  and  feel  to  be 
nearest  to  their  own  spirit,  and  try  to  give  them 
a  form  in  English.  An  unexpected  communion 
is  attained  by  this  exercise,  one  which  is  deeper 
than  any  attained  through  mere  reading.  It  is 
akin  to  the  pleasure  of  creation  in  the  company  of 
an  author  you  admire.  Now  what  authors  shall 
I  propose  for  this  task?  I  shall  suggest  some  in  the 
two  following  chapters. 

Before  ending  this,  I  want  to  say  a  few  words 
about  a  special  and  very  important  form  of  intellec- 
tual exchange,  and  that  is  the  educational  form. 
A  book  was  recently  published  which  develops 
that  matter  much  better  and  more  completely  than 
I  could  ever  do. 

It  was  issued  by  the  Society  of  American  Fellow- 
ships in  French  Universities,  and  is  called  Science 
and  Learning  in  France.^     It  is  the  work  of  numer- 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  99 

ous  committees  of  specialists  in  every  branch  of 
knowledge,  and  hundreds  of"  scholars  have  given 
their  name  as  sponsors,  expressing  "a  cordial  de- 
sire to  join  with  the  authors  in  making  this  book 
a  national  homage,  offered  from  the  universities 
of  America  to  the  universities  of  France."  At  the 
head  of  the  editorial  committee  are  Professor  H. 
Wigmore  and  Professor  Charles  H.  Grandgent,  and 
the  preface  is  written  by  Professor  Charles  W. 
Eliot,  Emeritus  President  of  Harvard  University. 

This  book  is  of  great  moral  significance  and 
notable  practical  value  to  the  students.  There  is  a 
remarkablecstudy  on  French  philosophers,  acknowl- 
edging the  part  of  initiator  that  France  played  in 
modern  times.  Twenty-one  other  matters  are  sur- 
veyed. About  the  general  qualities  of  the  French 
in  matter  of  science  and  learning,  Professor  Eliot 
says:  "These  characteristics  have  proved  to  be 
extraordinarily  permanent,  abiding  generation  after 
generation,  and  surviving  immense  political  and 
social  changes.  The  French  scholar  is  apt  to  be 
an  open-minded  man,  receptive  toward  new  ideas, 
and  an  ardent  lover  of  truth,  fluent,  and  progres- 
sive. The  French  scientists  have  rarely  been  ex- 
treme specialists,  narrow  in  their  interests  and  their 
chosen  objects.     They  have  recognized  that  no  sci- 

iR.  R.  Donnelly  &  Sons,  The  Lakeside  Press,  Chicago. 


100    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

ence  can  be  pursued  successfully  in  isolation.  .  .  . 
They  have  not  been  subdued  by  the  elaborate  sorting 
and  compiling  machinery  of  modem  scholarship." 
We  may  infer  from  this  splendid  collective  work 
that  reciprocal  influence  in  education  is  welcome 
and  will  know  a  brilliant  future. 

One  of  the  questions  I  had  to  abandon,  to  my 
great  regret,  is  that  of  the  mutual  influence  of 
French  and  American  philosophies.  Indeed  such 
matters  cannot  be  dealt  with  in  twenty  lines. 
When  I  translated  the  works  of  Professor  J.  M. 
Baldwin  and  of  Professor  Ellwood  of  Missouri 
University,  for  the  editions  of  the  Societe  de  Soci- 
ologie,  I  had  a  good  chance  to  appreciate  the  mul- 
tiple points  of  resemblance  in  the  American  and 
French  methods  of  thought,  especially  in  the  atti- 
tude of  mind  in  grasping  new  questions.  A  con- 
versation I  had  with  Mr.  Henri  Bergson  on  that 
subject  makes  me  hope  that  he  will  some  time  de- 
velop this  point  and  that,  thanks  to  him,  we  shall 
more  fully  know  the  deep  motives,  rooted  in  the 
very  process  of  thought,  which  make  our  alliance 
what  it  is. 

I  shall  now  rapidly  review  the  recent  past  of 
French  literature,  insisting  on  the  poetical  mani- 
festations, as  I  am  impatient  to  come  to  the  con- 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  101 

temporary  poets  who  give  expression  to  the  soul  of 
the  young  men  who  are  my  comrades.  But  it  is 
indispensable  to  say  from  who  we  descend,  who  are 
our  living  masters.  Another  reason  for  calling 
attention  to  some  important  figures  of  the  last 
period  is  that  their  value  has  not  yet  been  fully 
recognized,  and  American  readers  will  find  an 
immense  benefit  in  gleaning  by  themselves  in  this 
partly  untrodden  garden. 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  how  little  success  is  de- 
pendent upon  merit,  in  France  less  than  anywhere 
else.  There  is  a  non-modest  explanation  of  it  in 
the  fact  that  talent  being  abundant,  success  could 
only  reward  it  when  it  was  joined  with  some  social 
or  commercial  cleverness.  But  a  better  reason 
than  over-abundance  of  genius  is  the  extreme  divi- 
sion of  the  public  in  little  classes  who  do  not  easily 
adopt  one  another's  admirations.  So  that  a  man 
known  and  silently  admired  by  the  very  best,  might 
remain  all  his  life  unrecognized  except  by  a  few 
hundred  people. 

The  result  and  extreme  consequence  is  that  for  a 
time,  the  true  artists  refused  to  compete  for  popular- 
ity, and  made  a  system,  a  doctrine  indeed,  of  theii! 
isolation.  Thus,  instead  of  being  recognized  after 
their  death,  like  most  of  the  great  artists,  they  be- 
come known  only  after  the  passage  of  one  genera- 


102    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

tion  of  disciples.  Now  we  can  perceive  rather 
clearly  what  were  the  characteristics  of  the  best 
schools  of  1890,  which  are  today  a  part  of  France's 
classical  past.  First,  they  displayed  extreme  care 
for  a  perfect,  original,  rare  form.  They  had  con- 
tempt for  easy  sources  of  inspiration.  They  looked 
for  an  art  that  not  only  was  entirely  sufficient  to  it- 
self, but  that  also  despised  life  as  ugly  and  poor. 
Art  was  a  reaction  against  life  and  an  evasion  of 
life — a  revenge  against  it.  This  is  almost  exactly 
the  principle  of  Poe,  for  whom  reality  was  poison, 
and  this  resulted  in  the  perfectly  pure  and  detached 
work  of  Mallarme,  among  others.  The  result  of 
that  period  was  to  leave  us  some  admirable  poems, 
like  "L'Apres-Midi  d'un  Faune,"  or  Rimbaud's 
"Bateau  Ivre."  They  are  still  the  privilege  of  very 
few  admirers. 

Another  result  was  the  conquest  of  new  forms  in 
poetry.  These  poets  did  not  accept  the  former  laws 
of  versification;  but  discovered  and  adopted  new 
ones.  And  the  new  exigencies  of  modern  verse  are 
perhaps  even  more  strict  than  the  old  uniform  rules 
of  metre  and  rhyme.  Free  verse  (this  name  is 
very  improper)  introduced  in  poetry  many  possi- 
bilities and  nuances  that  the  regular  alexandrine 
verse  did  not  afford.  Moreover,  irregular  verse  is 
nothing  new,  since  it  is  claimed  to  descend  from 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGF  103 

La  Fontaine  and  from  the  verses  of  the  Bible. 
Now  poetry  is  being  appreciated  according  to  its 
qualities  of  lyrism  rather  than  the  degree  of  obe- 
dience to  fixed  material  rules  which  it  mani- 
fests. 

These  discussions  are  much  too  special  for  our 
subject.  Let  us  rapidly  recall  to  mind  the  names  of 
Albert  Samain,  Henri  de  Regnier,  Francis  Viele- 
Griffin  (who  is  of  American  birth),  as  being  the 
initiators  of  these  reforms.  Jean  Moreas  re- 
mained faithful  to  strict  metrical  tradition. 

Viele-Grifhn  ^  is  mostly  inspired  by  Greek  an- 
tiquity, but  renders  it  with  a  power  of  actual  pres- 
ence, of  simple  and  delicate  grandeur,  which  gives 
to  his  poems  die  serenity  of  ever-beautiful  work. 

Henri  de  Regnier  ^  is  now  a  member  of  the 
French  Academic,  and  thus  incarnates  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  noblest  French  tradition  and  of  the 
latest  conquests  of  "modem"  poetry. 

Let  us  then  travel  to  the  southern  extremity  of 
France.  At  the  foot  of  tlie  Pyrenees,  is  a  sunny 
little  town,  Orthez.  There  we  find  the  poet  Francis 
Jammes,^  who  loves  the  poor,  the  animals,  the 

iLo  ClarU  de  Vie  (Mercure  de  France),  etc. 

2  La  Sandale  AiUe,  Les  MMailles  d'Argile,  Les  Jeux 
Rustiqiies  et  Divins,  etc.,  and  several  novels. 

3  De  I'angelus  de  I'auhe  a  I'ancjelus  du  soir,  L'Eglise  ImhilUe 
de  feuilles,  Clairi^res  dans  le  del,  Le  Deuil  des  Primevbres, 


104    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

gardens,  the  seasons,  the  young  girls  and  the  other 
things  of  God.  He  writes  about  them  simple 
poems  where  the  blood  of  Virgil  runs  and  sings,^ 
Francis  Jammes  has  to  be  mentioned  in  the  first 
rank  of  the  poets  who  had  influence  and  were 
continued    by    disciples.     Comtesse    Mathieu    de 

Le  Triomphe  de  la  Vie,  Le  Roman  clu  LUvre  (a  book  of  most 
adorable  prose),  etc.,  and  recently  Le  Rosaire  au  Soleil. 

1  Here  is  the  Prayer  to  enter  Paradise  with  the  Donkeys, 
which  I  quote  from  Miss  A.  Lowell's  book,  Six  French  Poets: 

"When  the  time  for  going  to  you  will  have  come,  O  my  God, 
let  it  be  on  a  day  when  the  countryside  is  dusty  with  a  festi- 
val. I  wish,  just  as  I  do  here,  to  choose  the  road  and  go 
as  I  please  to  Paradise,  where  there  are  stars  in  broad  day- 
light. I  will  take  my  stick  and  I  will  go  along  the  high-road, 
and  I  will  say  to  the  donkeys,  my  friends:  'I  am  Francis 
Jammes  and  I  am  going  to  Paradise,'  for  there  is  no  hell  in 
the  country  of  the  good  God.  I  will  say  to  them:  'Come,  gen- 
tle friends  of  the  blue  sky,  poor,  dear  animals,  who,  with  a 
sudden  movement  of  the  ears,  drive  away  silver  flies,  blows, 
and  bees.  .  .  .' 

"Grant  that  I  appear  before  you  in  the  midst  of  these  ani- 
mals that  I  love  so  much,  because  they  hang  their  heads  gently, 
and  when  they  stop  put  their  little  feet  together  in  a  very 
sweet  and  pitiful  way.  I  shall  arrive  followed  by  their  mil- 
lions of  ears,  followed  by  those  who  carry  baskets  on  their 
flanks,  by  those  who  draw  the  acrobats'  carts,  or  carts  of 
feather-dusters  and  tinware,  by  those  who  have  dented  cans 
on  their  backs,  she-asses  full  like  gourds,  with  halting  steps, 
and  those  on  whom  they  put  little  pantaloons  because  of  the 
blue  and  running  sores  which  the  obstinate  flies  make,  stick- 
ing in  circles.  My  God,  grant  that  I  come  to  you  with  these 
asses.  Grant  that  angels  conduct  us  in  peace  to  tufted 
streams,  where  glossy  cherries  quiver,  which  are  like  the 
laughing  flesh  of  young  girls,  and  grant  that,  leaning  over 
your  divine  waters  in  this  place  of  souls,  I  become  like  the 
donkeys  who  mirror  their  humble  and  gentle  poverty  in  the 
clearness  of  eternal  love." 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  105 

Noailles  ^  is  another  poet,  with  more  pride  and 
also  more  anxiety,  but  she  is  near  to  Jammes,  whom 
she  deeply  admires,  in  many  aspects  of  her  work. 
She  is  a  great,  noble,  restless  soul,  with  an  ex- 
traordinary power  of  projecting  magnificence 
around  her.  Slie  has  ennobled  and  exalted  the 
humble  plants  from  the  gardens  as  well  as  wor- 
shipped the  heroes.  She  has  been  criticized  for 
this;  but  I  suppose  that  in  order  to  give  grandeur 
to  everything  one  has  first  to  possess  an  unusual 
amount  of  grandeur  in  oneself.  She  always  wrote 
in  regular  verse,  enclosing  therein  the  mystical  and 
tragic  conflicts  which  constantly  arise  in  this  gen- 
erous and  tormented  heart. 

A  decidedly  powerful  influence  on  the  present 
French  literature  is  Paul  Claudel's.  His  genius  is 
so  strong  and  so  new,  that  a  long  preparation  would 
be  necessary  to  approach  and  define  him.  Six 
years  ago  he  was  all  but  unknown.  Today  he  is 
famous.  His  work  is  mostly  poems  and  dramas,^ 
wherein  a  pure  catholic  orthodoxy  is  to  be  found 
together  with  the  most  daring  audacities  in  the  use 
of  the  resources  of  French  prosody. 

1  Le  Coeur  Innombrablc,  Les  Eblouissements,  Les  Vivants  et 
les  ^fn^■f.t.  le  Vhnne  EmervpiUo,  etc. 

-Cinq  Grandes  Odes,  L'Arbre  (dramas),  Connaissance  de 
I' Est  (a  book  of  prose  on  the  spectacles  of  the  East,  written 
when  Claudel  was  a  consul  in  China),  L'Otage  (a  drama), 
etc. — and  his  Po^mes  de  Guerre. 


106    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Other  important  figures  in  today's  poetry  are 
Paul  Fort,  author  of  the  many  "Ballades  Fran- 
gaises,"  Andre  Suares,  who  also  wrote  books  of  es- 
says and  criticism  of  high  value,  Andre  Spire, 
Henri  Gheon,  Paul  Fargue,  Jean  Schlumberger, 
each  of  whom  deserves  a  long  appreciation,  which 
cannot  find  place  here.  But  a  mere  nomenclature 
of  the  influences  acting  upon  us  could  not  omit  their 
names. 

Charles  Peguy  ^  has  a  place  among  the  poets, 
owing  to  his  "Mysteres,"  the  first  one  being  a  deeply 
beautiful  restitution  of  Joan  of  Arc's  childhood  and 
vocation. 

The  two  masters  whose  action  I  regard  as  most 
decisive  on  the  inspiration  and  work  of  the  young 
are  Andre  Gide  and  Emile  Verhaeren.  Of  the  first 
I  shall  say  nothing  in  this  article,  because  I  can- 
not resign  myself  to  limit  his  definition  to  a  few 
sentences,  and  because  his  tremendous  influence  on 
the  artists  whom  I  know  has  been  so  multiform,  so 
subtle,  that  it  would  be  a  vain  and  poor  attempt 
to  try  to  detect  it  in  a  rapid  analysis.  All  that  I 
can  say  is  that  I  owe  everything  to  him.^ 

1  See  Part  I. 

zLes  Nourritures  Terrestres,  La  Porte  Etroite,  Pritextes, 
Novveaux  Pretextes,  etc.  Readers  who  wish  to  know  him 
better  have  to  open,  first,  his  works,  second,  Jacques  Riviere's 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  107 

At  the  Rouen  railway  station,  in  November,  1916, 
Emile  Verhaeren  was  killed  beneath  the  wheels  of 
a  passing  train.  The  greatest  of  Belgian  poets,  and 
one  of  the  most  noble  workers  in  the  French  lan- 
guage was  taken  from  us.  But  if  there  is  a  man 
who  should  dwell  permanently  among  us,  living 
more  and  more  in  his  work  and  example,  it  is  Emile 
Verhaeren. 

Alive,  who  was  his  superior?  Hot  blood  circu- 
lated in  his  veins,  his  thought  was  a  glowing  cru- 
cible, in  which  matters  were  submitted  to  a  fiery 
test.  His  voice  rapped  out  words  that,  with  a 
gesture,  he  seemed  to  fling  into  space.  He  tramped 
forward,  shoulders  rounded,  like  the  abutment  of 
an  arch,  as  one  ready  to  push  forward  something 
heavy.  His  physical  appearance  inspired  more 
than  one  artist,  and  the  best  portraits  of  him  that  re- 
main are  without  doubt  those  drawn  by  his  friend 
and  compatriot,  Theo  Van  Rysselberghe.  The  face 
seamed,  wrinkled,  and  grief  worn,  but  the  eyes 
clear  and  bright;  the  moustache  long  and  drooping; 
the  hand  hot  and  nervous,  seeming  always  ready  to 
seize  an  object  and  to  remodel  it.  His  speech  was 
simple  and  cordial,  and  even  enthusiastic,  and  his 
heart  was  infinitely  youthful.     If  one  speaks  of  the 

Etudes,  which  contain  the  best  survey  of  his  genius  and  pro- 
duction. 


108    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

presence  of  mind  of  certain  men,  it  is  necessary  in 
the  case  of  Verhaeren  to  speak  of  the  presence  of 
heart. 

His  supreme  title  to  fame  will  rest  in  his  having 
welded  at  the  heat  of  that  red  forge,  his  heart,  the 
lyricism  of  great  poetic  inspiration  and  the  reality 
of  modem  life.  He  carried  with  him  a  love  of 
reality,  and  he  turned  aside  from  nothing.  The 
real  commenced  with  his  own  body,  with  the  physi- 
cal joy  of  recognizing  the  world  through  his 
senses. 

I  love  my  eyes,  tny  arms, 

My  hands,  my  flesh,  my  frame, 

And  my  hair  thick  and  fair, 

And  with  my  lungs, 

I  wish  to  drink  in  all  space, 

In  order  to  swell  my  strength. 

This  he  writes  in  the  fulness  of  life,  and  later — 

I  thank  you,  my  body, 
For  being  still  firm  and  quick 
To  the  touch  of  the  swift  winds, 
Or  of  the  low  breezes. 

And  you,  my  straight  frame, 
And  my  strong  lungs, 
Breathing  by  the  seashore, 
Or  on  the  mountain. 
The  keen  and  radiant  air 
Which  enwraps  the  world. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  109 

Impelled  by  such  elements  of  fervour,  the  poet 
could  scarcely  go  astray,  whatever  might  be  the 
parabola  described  by  his  spirit.  He  possessed 
the  true  light  which  was  never  lacking,  and  which 
did  not  deceive. 

"Instinct  rivets  to  my  brow  a  sufficient  cer- 
tainty." 

Verhaeren  took  up  the  task  of  the  artist  as  the 
result  of  a  supreme  election.  It  was  to  this  higher 
form  of  life  that  he  devoted  himself.  He  listened 
to  the  temptation  irresistible  to  a  high  spirit. 

"Mark  the  deep  rhythms  of  the  Universe ! 
Oh !  to  define  progress  in  a  passing  image, 
In  a  sudden  language; 
To  note  it  in  the  rough  seas, 
Upon  the  mountain  height, 
In  the  rage  of  the  wind, 
In  the  clash  of  thunder 
In  the  softness  of  a  woman's  footfall. 
In  the  light  of  the  eyes, 
In  the  pity  of  the  hands. 
In  the  manifest  uprising 
Of  a  super-human  being. 
In  the  tempest  of  sex, 
In  the  hours  of  folly, 
In  all  that  deceives. 
In  all  that  hears, 
In  all  that  disrupts. 
In  all  that  unites 
To  captivate  the  infinite  intelligence." 


110    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

And  when  he  translates  the  powerful  joy  of 
workmanship,  how  full  are  these  words  to  the 
artist! 

The  bones,  the  blood,  the  nerves 

Make  alliance 

With  one  knows  not  what  trembling 

In  the  air  and  in  the  wind. 

One  feels  light  and  bright  as  space, 

One  rejoices  to  give  thanks. 

Facts,  principles,  laws — 
One  comprehends  all. 
The  heart  trembles  with  love, 
And  the  spirit  seems  mad 
With  the  intoxication  of  ideas! 

That  which  Verhaeren  manifests  before  all  is 
a  simple  and  yet  fervent  virility.  Nobody  can  be 
gentler  or  at  times  rougher,  more  brutal  or  more 
tender  in  turn.  He  is  the  great  wind  which  both 
ravages  and  caresses.  He  is  the  pure  voice  of  na- 
ture, complex  and  alarming.  Above  all,  his  work 
weighs.  His  most  largely  winged  verses  are  al- 
ways cut  from  hard  metal,  and  those  most  charged 
with  divine  spirit  are  in  solid  blocks,  four-sided, 
like  the  masonry  of  a  cathedral  which  cannot  be 
destroyed  by  cannon. 

The  general  effect  of  his  work  is  ample  and  gen- 
erous. The  heart  of  the  poet  traverses  and  ex- 
presses the  most  tragic  crises.     Strenuous  conflicts, 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  111 

and  stormy  images  torment  the  soul  and  suspend  it 
in  space.  All  problems  of  universal  or  of  indi- 
vidual ethics  are  found  agitating  in  the  poems  of 
Verhaeren.  No  one  is  more  deeply  enrooted  in  the 
life  of  his  time,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  a  person 
exists  who  has  more  completely  expressed  the  mean- 
ing of  life,  its  labours,  its  despairs,  its  pride,  and  its 
"multiple  splendour." 

His  works  are  far  from  unknown  in  America, 
where  various  translations  are  in  circulation, 
thanks  to  Arthur  Symons,  Jethro  Bithell,  Alma 
Strettel,  Joyce  Kilmer  and  others. 

The  glory  of  Verhaeren  was  essentially  interna- 
tional. His  popularity  was  perhaps  greatest  in 
Russia.  Thousands  of  readers,  and  especially 
young  men,  have  vibrated  to  his  thrilling  strophes, 
to  the  unbridled  work  of  his  youth.  ("Les 
Flamandes,"  "Les  Moines,"  "Les  Flambeaux 
Noirs.") 

"Les  Villes  Tentaculaires"  tell  of  the  devouring 
intensity  of  the  industrial  forges  and  factories,  and 
the  drama  of  the  deserted  countryside. 

"Les  Visages  de  la  Vie"  (1899),  "La  Multiple 
Splendeur"  (1902),  "Les  Forces  Tumulteuses," 
(1906),  "Les  Rythmes  Souverains"  (1910)  mark 
his  most  characteristic  epochs,  if  not  tlie  apogee  of 
his  power,  and  in  his  late  years  this  power  was  not 
diminished  but  softened. 


112    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

He  gives  another  expression  of  himself  in  poems 
of  tenderness  and  serenity,  as  in  "Les  Heures  de 
Soir,"  "Bles  Mouvants,"  in  poems  dedicated  to 
heroic  memories,  as  in  the  description  of  his 
Fatherland— "Toute  la  Flandre."  Between  these 
appear  the  dramas — "Philippe  II,"  "Le  Cloitre," 
"Les  Aubes,"  and  "Helen  of  Sparta,"  which  was 
produced  magnificently  in  Paris  in  1912. 

The  basis  of  his  ethic  is  admiration.  Little  by 
little  in  the  course  of  his  work  other  forces  dissolve 
or  mingle  as  streams  which  join  a  river.  His  re- 
volts are  gradually  absorbed  by  the  love  which  dom- 
inates, simply  because  with  Verhaeren,  in  whom 
so  many  forces  operated,  love  was  the  strongest. 

"He  who  may  read  me  in  the  days  to  come, 

May  he  know  my  transports  and  my  joy 
Amid  cries,  revolts  and  tears, 
See  me  rush  into  combat,  proud  and  manly. 
Free  from  sorrow  and  attracting  love, 
As  one  conquers  one's  prey. 

He  foresaw  clearly,  the  times  and  the  passions  to 
come,  and  presented  them  with  all  his  genius,  fore- 
telling their  approach  in  a  strophe  which  is  perhaps 
of  all  the  most  beautiful. 

A  vast  hope  springs  from  the  unknown, 
Displacing  the  ancient  balance 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE     '      113 

Of  which  our  souls  are  weary 
Nature  makes  ready  to  engrave 
A  new  visage  for  eternity. 
Everything  stirs  and  it  seems 
That  the  horizon  moves  forward. 

Of  his  life  work  the  synthesis  was  complete,  the 
harmony  without  reproach,  and  this  great  and  gen- 
erous power  for  years  satisfied  himself  merely 
with  kindness  and  goodness.  As  he  had  led  "a 
life  having  nothing  in  common  with  death,"  ^ 
neither  present  bitterness  nor  the  ashes  of  a  past 
sorrow  could  extinguish  his  pure  flame. 

His  life  was  divided  between  the  little  house  at 
St.  Cloud,  near  Paris,  and  his  retreat  at  Caillou-qui- 
Bique,  in  Belgium,  where  he  passed  the  summer. 

And  then  the  inexpiable  thing  happened. 

August,  1914,  raining  blood  and  disaster,  burst 
on  his  loyal  and  pacific  little  country.  The  incen- 
diary, the  assassin,  the  violator  struck  it  down. 
The  unbridled  brutality  of  an  invader  who  already 
believed  himself  victorious  was  let  loose  upon  his 
beloved  country.  Verhaeren  was  advancing  in 
years,  and  the  blow  was  terrible.  He  suffered  pro- 
foundly in  spirit  and  body,  and  was  almost  suc- 
cumbing to  the  sorrow  which  filled  his  soul  at  the 
sight  of  the  devastation  of  all  that  he  cherished. 

1  Vildrac. 


114    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

Nevertheless,  the  energy  which  burned  in  his  be- 
ing kept  him  erect,  and  the  peaceable  man  of  letters 
became  a  combatant.  All  that  was  his  of  fervour, 
of  indignation,  and  also  of  simple  devotion  he 
placed  at  the  sei-vice  of  his  murdered  yet  always 
living  country.  He  saw  the  burned  cities,  he  saw 
the  army  pent  in  the  last  field  of  its  natal  soil.  He 
saw  the  King  amid  his  soldiers,  and  he  wrote  pas- 
sionately of  these  sombre  things. 

"La  Belgique  Sanglante!" — Emile  Verhaeren, 
after  all  his  works  of  love,  emitted  this  great  cry  of 
anger.  This  book  is  from  the  outset  a  loyal  and 
irrefutable  document.  When  many  other  pam- 
phlets are  forgotten,  it  will  remain  as  a  redoubtable 
instrument  and  a  powerful  manifestation  of  resist- 
ance and  of  faith. 

In  the  midst  of  many  statements  of  facts  he  does 
not  fail  to  make  allusion  and  render  homage  to  the 
generosity  of  America.  Between  him  and  that 
country  a  pronounced  comprehension  existed,  which 
had  not  to  wait  for  the  splendid  enthusiasm  and 
generosity  of  the  United  States  towards  his  mar- 
tyred nation.  Like  his  compatriot  Emile  Vander- 
velde,  and  also  Dr.  Depage,  Emile  Verhaeren  was 
a  firm  believer  in  democracy.  At  the  same  time 
he  was  a  personal  friend  of  King  Albert,  and  in 
this  friendship  between  king  and  poet,  between 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  115 

public  man  and  man  of  science,  one  may  ask  who 
was  the  more  ennobled?  I  think  it  was  Belgium 
herself. 

Presently  appeared  The  Red  Wings  of  War,  that 
book  of  poems  written  during  the  sanguinary  tor- 
ment of  Belgium.  It  is  not  equal  to  the  Ver- 
haeren  of  the  years  of  happiness,  fervour  and  for- 
tune, but  such  pieces  as  "The  Country  to  its  Dead 
Soldiers"  and  "A  Strip  of  Countiy"  are  supreme 
in  their  alliance  of  anger  with  tenderness.  Never- 
theless, one  fact  makes  us  inconsolable.  Great 
patriot  that  he  was,  he  will  not  assist  in  the  deliver- 
ance of  his  people  and  will  not  see  in  Brussels  re- 
stored the  King  re-enter  on  horse-back,  amid  the 
fervent  greetings  of  a  resuscitated  nation — the  King 
sans  peur,  of  whom  Verhaeren's  last  book  sang. 

Comes  that  day  of  glory  when  the  soldiers  of 
Albert  I,  laughing  yet  terrible,  shall  re-enter  Dix- 
mude,  Bruges,  Liege  and  also  the  little  village  of 
Caillou-qui-Bique, 

Verhaeren  is  dead  .  .  . 

What  will  be,  in  the  time  to  come,  the  influence 
of  Verhaeren  and  his  work?  I  believe  that  it  will 
increase  and  be  immense.  This  fine  and  yet  prim- 
itive soul  will  exercise  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  spirits  of  the  approaching  epoch.     The  war- 


116    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

riors  on  their  return  will  require  nourishment, 
healthful  and  sustaining,  and  the  influence  of  Ver- 
haeren  is  that  above  all,  apart  from  his  naive  lu- 
cidity. He  warns  us  that  "one  must  love,  in  order 
to  understand  with  genius." 

One  has  often  compared  the  inspiration  of  Ver- 
haeren  with  that  of  Walt  Whitman,  and  in  many  re- 
spects their  characters  resemble  each  other.  It  is 
to  Hugo  also  that  he  belongs,  in  certain  excesses 
even,  that  is  to  say,  his  indulgence  in  flamboyant 
imagery,  his  striking  contrasts  and  grandiloquent 
epithets  are  the  natural  excesses  of  an  almost  too 
generous  soul.  His  faults  even  are  an  aspect  of  his 
grandeur. 

In  truth,  I  believe  that  the  time  will  come  when 
the  works  of  Verhaeren  will  be  regarded  with  the 
highest  enthusiasm,  and  indeed  that  time  is  already 
at  hand. 

French  literature  of  today  shows  the  marks  of 
one  American  influence  which  may  well  be  called 
decisive.  Walt  Whitman's  blood  runs  in  the  veins 
of  the  young  writers  of  France,  and  was  infused 
there  through  more  than  one  channel.  We  first 
knew  "Leaves  of  Grass,"  thanks  to  the  translation 
by  Leon  Bazalgette,  which  was  published  by  the 
Mercure  de  France,  rfien  we  read  it  in  English. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  117 

Shall  I  call  our  young  poets  disciples  of  his? 
Whitman  would  smile  at  this.  The  old  master 
whom  they  never  saw  but  can  imagine,  never  cared 
for  disciples  in  tlie  narrow  sense  of  that  word. 
Maybe  tliey  know  little  of  him,  and  understand  him 
wrong — still  not  wrong  enough  to  call  themselves 
his  disciples!  Some  writers  of  ours  used  a  verse 
very  similar  to  his.  But  his  influence  on  a  few 
poets  is  small,  compared  to  his  action  on  the  men- 
tality of  the  young  in  general.  It  is  more  vital 
than  the  discovery  of  a  new  resource  in  rhythm  or 
in  melody.  It  is  an  immensely  renewed  inspira- 
tion which  is  proposed  by  this  American,  and  which 
is  one  of  the  treasures  of  our  times. 

He  and  Verhaeren,  our  masters,  are,  indeed,  like 
some  proud  and  gigantic  stems,  whence  we,  their 
branches,  may  borrow  a  stimulating  sap.  I  remem- 
ber the  word  of  Alphonse  Daudet's  litde  son  when 
he  saw  Ivan  Turgeniev  coming  into  his  father's 
house,  arm  in  arm  with  Gustave  Flaubert:  "But 
all  your  friends  are  giants,  then?" 

These  giants  who  dictate  the  rhythm  of  our  liter- 
ary life  have  opened  to  the  world's  poetry  a  new 
field,  and  what  a  field ! — that  of  modem  life.  They 
sang  of  the  cities,  of  industrial  work,  and  physical 
ejffort.  Their  teaching  is  the  one  which  will  be  de- 
manded by  the  men  returned  from  the  war:  a  teach- 


118    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

ing  of  strength,  fervor  and  simplicity*.  But  we  did 
not  wait  for  the  war  to  read  and  admire  them. 

The  universe  seems  to  be  wider  since  their 
voices  praised  its  various  parts,  countries,  crea- 
tures, emotions,  constructions,  details.  .  .  .  We 
are  no  more  the  men  we  were  before  we  read  "Song 
of  Myself." 

Let  me  quote,  almost  in  full,  one  of  the  best 
poems  of  Charles  Vildrac's  Livre  d' Amour}  Do 
I  mistake  in  regarding  this  as  affiliated  to  your  con- 
temporary inspiration,  either  still  latent  or  coming 
to  expression? 

The  Conquerors 

Behold  the  cavaher  without  a  horse, — but  whoever 
sees  him  pass  will  know  him  for  a  Knight. 

Behold  the  pilgrim  with  neither  staff  nor  breviary, 
— but  whoever  sees  him  pass  will  know  that  he  is  more 
than  a  crusader. 

Behold  the  chief  who  does  not  command,  but  whoever 
listens  to  him  will  know  him  for  a  captain. 

Behold  the  conqueror  without  an  army, — but  the  only 
conqueror — he  who  knows  how  to  talk  with  everybody, 
both  men  and  women;  and  can  make  good  tears  shine 
in  their  eyes  again,  and  can  give  back  to  them  the  clear 
laughter  of  children. 

1  Nouvelle  Bevue  Frangaise,  publisher.  Translation  by  Miss 
E.  Eyre. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  119 

His  best  weapons  are  his  friendly  eyes,  his  thought- 
ful and  surprising  kindnesses, — it  is  the  way  his  voice 
gives  help  to  his  words,  it  is  the  way  his  spirit  dances 
like  a  torch. 

He  is  prodigal  and  bare  as  a  tree  in  the  spring,  his 
heart  is  warm  as  a  greenhouse  in  winter;  and  one  aban- 
dons oneself  to  whatever  he  says, — again  it  is  he  who, 
when  he  takes,  gives. 

He  will  come  wherever  you  are.  He  will  not  sit 
down  beside  you  as  do  those  to  whom  the  half  of  your 
face  and  but  one  of  your  shoulders  suffice. 

But  he  will  sit  down  opposite  you,  his  knees  touch- 
ing your  knees,  your  hands  within  reach  of  his  hands, 
and  his  eyes  bearing  upon  your  eyes,  forcing  them  to 
uncover. 

And  you  will  say:  Where  have  I  seen  him  before? 

As  in  singing  under  a  vault  one  discovers  the  single 
note  which  makes  the  whole  vibrate  and  become  its 
warm  voice. 

So  his  words  agitate  in  your  lifted  throat  the  beautiful 
voice  that  it  imprisons,  of  which  you  had  not  suspicion, 
— your  best  voice,  your  only  voice. 

He  will  love  you  in  your  own  way,  with  the  presents 
you  would  have  chosen,  with  his  bluntness,  with  his 
laughter,  his  humility  or  his  pity;  he  will  love  you  as 
much  as  it  is  necessary  to  soften  you  and  win  you. 

You  will  wonder:  Wliat  does  he  expect  from  me? 
Wliat  will  he  ask  of  me  tomorrow?  And  you  will  be 
troubled,  never  suspecting  that  really,  without  know- 
ing it  himself,  he  expects  from  you  the  reason  for  his 
existence;  that  you  are  necessary  to  him  as  the  words 
one  speaks,  the  ears  that  receive  them,  as  beautiful 
things  to  the  eyes  that  surround  them. 


120    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

For  conquest  is  his  great  desire;  like  heroes  and  like 
women,  he  loves  to  feel  himself  fondled  by  the  scat- 
tered thoughts  of  men,  which,  from  a  great  distance, 
lean  towards  him  as  benumbed  fingers  stretch  towards  a 
fire. 

On  certain  nights,  his  hands,  pressing  together,  are 
warm  the  while  he  gently  inclines  his  head,  for  he  is 
aware,  confusedly,  that  his  name  has  just  been  spoken 
in  many  dwellings  where  he  has  been. 

Houses  close  to  him,  and  houses  remote  from  him, 
resembling  each  other  in  nothing  but  in  his  love  as  a  bap- 
tism. So  you  will  be  one  of  his  victories,  followed  by 
another  and  still  others. 

The  strength  of  his  heart  will  bend  towards  him  the 
proud  and  contemptuous  people,  as  it  will  enfold  those 
that  are  weak. 

It  is  not  the  custom  among  men  to  consecrate  oneself 
and  give,  expecting  nothing  in  return ;  and  to  balance  his 
great  love  it  is  the  love  of  many  that  he  demands.  .  .  . 

Into  a  land  of  little  hope,  under  an  aged  sun  that 
long  had  looked  serene  on  men  both  gay  and  sad,  there 
came,  one  day,  this  conqueror,  in  fire  for  keen  and  vivid 
conquering.  Indefatigable  he  makes  his  way,  tracing 
his  path  before  his  steps  as  one  would  plough. 

And  the  vagrants  that  he  passed,  loved  him  dumbly 
like  dogs. 

And  with  an  awkward  and  simple  tenderness  the  sim- 
ple villages  loved  him. 

And  in  their  crowded  waves,  their  voices  thick  with 
tears  and  their  clamours  rising  in  vast  clouds,  and  their 
enormous  and  childish  joy,  the  feverish  and  pallid  cities 
loved  him. 

Until  one  day,  0  delicious  miracle!  another  is  born, 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  121 

endowed  as  he,  another  arises,  jealous  of  his  renown, 
and  marches  like  him  through  the  country — prodigal  of 
the  best  in  him,  and  reaping,  reaping  victories. 

And  then  will  other  conquerors  unexpectedly  arise, 
and  as  there  have  been  a  hundred  conquerors,  so  now 
must  one  become  a  hundred  times  a  lover,  a  hundred 
times  beloved. 

.  .  .  And  those  that  have  been  conquered  a  hundred 
times  will  also  wish  to  conquer. 

And  the  time  will  come  in  the  country,  the  time  of  the 
great  conquest,  when  people  with  this  longing  will  leave 
the  thresholds  of  their  doors,  to  go  the  one  to  meet  the 
other. 

And  the  time  will  come  in  this  country,  when  history 
will  be  made  of  nothing  but  choruses  of  songs,  but 
dances  hand  in  hand,  but  one  combat  and  one  victory! 

Vildrac  belongs  to  the  group  of  the  Unanimists, 
whose  chief  was  Jules  Romains.  In  Romains'  La 
Vie  Unanime,^  we  find  the  verses  which  perhaps 
formulate  most  absolutely  this  new  creed.  They 
looked  for  inspiration  not  so  much  in  individual 
feelings  or  passions,  as  in  the  life  and  movements 
of  collectivities.  Whether  this  school  will  con- 
tinue to  exist  as  a  group  I  do  not  know.  But  I  have 
a  great  faith  in  the  works  that  will  come  from  some 
of  its  members. 

The  very  movement  and  sound  of  Whitman  are 
to  be  found  in  some  of  Valery  Larbaud's  poems, 
preceding  his  "Bamabooth's  Diary."     And  may  I 

1  Mercure  de  France,  publisher. 


122    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

quote  this  fragment  of  an  unpublished  chant  "To 
America,"  which  was  written  in  1917  by  a  very 
young  poet,  Mireille  Havet? 

"Glorious  cities  of  America, 

Tumultuous  cities,  and  well  populated. 

Cities  rich  with  the  future  which  will  cover  us  all, 

I  salute  you,  today,  from  my  little  corner  in  France, 

From  my  corner  of  a  city  in  France, 

From  the  corner  of  my  table. 

"Ah,  never  was  it  graver  to  be  young. 

Graver  to  be  impatient. 

With  that  conquering  desire,  which  comes  from  the  pride 
to  be  the  last  ones 

.  .  .  The  last  of  all,  when  the  others  were  living, 

.  .  .  The  first,  now  that  we  are  alone! 

And  the  words  shall  come  from  us 

Or  eternally  remain  silent. 

And  judgment  shall  come  from  us,  and  action. 

Or  our  cities  will  remain  in  ashes,  and  our  dead  non- 
buried  ! 

"We  find  ourselves  at  the  edge  of  the  fresh  ridge; 
The  seed  that  we  hold  is  very  different. 

"America,  let  our  generation  be  the  piers  of  a  bridge 

Stretching  itself  between  the  various  nations. 

Let  our  hands  grasp  each  other. 

Let  us  stand  firm 

And  be  worthy  of  this  Earth,  which  men,  until  now, 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  123 

Did  but  divide  between  themselves  in  a  bloody  fashion. 
"I  salute  you,  well-populated  cities  of  America, 
And  my  heart  goes  to  you 
Leaping  with  hope." 

There  are  many  names,  -which  I  would  give: 
Rene  Arcos,  Georges  Duhamel,  Frangois  Porche 
and  many  others.  But  let  me  once  more  turn  JDack 
to  Henri  Franck,  who  would  lead  our  troop  today 
were  he  still  among  us.^  The  first  part  of  his  Danse 
devant  VArche  ended  with  this  affirmation  of  en- 
thusiasm for  the  Universe: 

"Adolescent  runner,  with  unwearied  heart, 
I  shall  reach  the  clearing  where  one  comes  upon  God. 
One  day  I  shall  know  the  thing  I  so  strongly  desire, 
And  my  spirit  will  be  multiplied  and  stretched  with  the 

waiting; 
For  nothing  exists  in  earth  or  heaven 
That  the  determination  of  my  seeking  wisdom  may  not 

know. 
One  day  I  shall  find  the  divine  current. 
And  with  the  feel  of  its  powerful  flow  against  my  back, 
A  joyous  bather  abandoning  myself  to  the  sweep  of  the 

stream. 
On  this  glorious  bed,  between  the  superb  banks  of  the 

Universe  laden  with  houses  and  fruits. 
Supple  of  body,  light  of  heart,  swift  of  spirit. 
In  the  turbulent  water  of  life  I  shall  swim  with  power 

and  pleasure." 

iSee  Part  I. 


124    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

And  in  the  last  part,  reaching  a  higher  point  of 
knowledge  and  wisdom,  without  losing  his  power 
of  fervour,  but  having  transformed  its  object: 

"Truth  is  enthusiasm  without  hope, 

Ardour  unquenchable, 

Joy  that  mounts  straight  up  into  the  black  sky, 

The  perfect  happiness  of  fervour  without  recompense, 

The  high  happiness  of  feeling  keenly  one's  existence, 

Of  being  alive!" 

The  fragments  I  have  chosen  to  quote  are  not 
the  most  perfect  that  I  could  have  found,  but  the 
ones  which  seemed  to  me  to  give  the  sense  of  our 
next  tendencies  in  poetry;  its  characteristics  being 
the  universal,  the  direct,  and,  as  so,  essentially  able 
to  be  exchanged  from  country  to  country.  And  I 
find  much  of  the  same  characteristics  in  the  living 
American  poets  whom  I  happened  to  read.  There 
is  no  reason  why  France  should  not  give  a  cordial 
recognition  to  poets  like  Edgar  Lee  Masters,  E.  A. 
Robinson,  Amy  Lowell,  Vachel  Lindsay,  Witter 
Bynner,  Ridgely  Torrence,  James  Oppenheim, 
Louis  Ledoux,  and  others.  The  more  genuinely 
American  will  be  the  more  welcome,  since  American 
attitude  of  mind  now  means  that  broad  and 
understanding  sympathy  that  we  are  looking  for 
in  our  own  best  leaders.  I  am  strangely  impa- 
tient to  see  the  day  when  I  shall  try  to  give  to  a  few 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  125 

in  Paris  an  idea  of  tlie  movement  and  rhythm  of 
"The  Congo"  or  "General  Booth"  by  Vachcl  Lind- 
say. Lindsay's  muse  essentially  belongs  to  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  and  knows  no  other  shores,  but  that 
is  precisely  why  we  shall  be  glad  to  welcome  her, 
with  her  bright  cheeks  and  well-knit  muscles,  and 
her  surprise  to  find  herself  among  us.  This  is  no 
mere  curiosity  or  dilettantism.  What  we  really 
love  will  become  a  part  of  ourselves,  as  Poe  and 
Whitman  did  in  the  past. 

In  the  literary  life  of  France,  during  the  past  few 
years,  there  was  not  to  be  found  the  strict  division 
and  classification  in  schools  and  "chapelles"  which 
the  former  period  had  known.  The  writers  might 
be  classified  according  to  die  reviews  in  which 
they  used  to  have  their  works  published,  but  the 
tendency  of  each  review  was  much  less  definite  than 
before,  and  many  writers  contributed  to  several 
of  them.  It  often  happens  that  a  group  which  is 
politically  conservative,  proves  to  be  over-advanced 
in  its  literary  form  of  expression;  like,  for  in- 
stance, the  Occident  magazine,  which  holds  to 
catholic  tradition  and  which  publishes  works  whose 
form  a  defender  of  classical  rules  would  call  rev- 
olutionary. 

Most  of  the  best  books  published  in  the  past  fif- 


126    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

teen  years  appeared  in  the  Mercure  de  France  edi- 
tions, and  the  collection  of  the  Mercure  magazine 
itself  can  be  regarded  as  forming  the  best  history  of 
recent  French  literature.  Other  periodicals  which 
played  a  large  part  in  its  evolution  were  La  Revue 
Blanche,  U Er milage,  La  Phalange,  Vers  et  Prose 
(edited  by  Paul  Fort).  Charles  Peguy's  Cahiers 
de  la  Quinzaine  also  contain  much  of  our  best 
production. 

In  1909,  La  Nouvelle  Revue  Francaise  was 
started  and  soon  gathered  most  of  what  was  living 
and  valuable  in  the  various  tendencies  of  contem- 
porary writing.  Two  years  later  it  opened  a  pub- 
lishing branch,  now  very  successful,  and  in  1913 
its  spirit  was  brought  into  the  Theatre  du  Vieux- 
Colombier,  founded  by  Jacques  Copeau.  The  war 
stopped  all  these  activities,  except  as  to  tlie  publish- 
ing of  books.  But  in  1917-1918  the  Theatre  du 
Vieux-Colombier  will  be  transported  to  New  York, 
and  this  will  bring  one  more  opportunity  of  under- 
standing and  penetration  between  the  advanced 
literary  elements  of  both  countries. 

There  are  many  other  active  groups,  which  I 
could  enumerate,  did  this  book  pretend  to  give  a 
complete  account  of  our  intellectual  life.  But  my 
purpose  was  only  to  suggest  and  awaken  interest. 
The  Americans  who  desire  to  know  more  about  us 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  127 

will  have  no  difficulty  in  discovering  that  I  have 
treated  a  very  small  part  of  my  subject.  But  I  can 
introduce  them  to  other  guides  and  to  better  ones. 
They  are  the  essayists  and  critics  who  gave  intel- 
ligent and  passionate  commentaries  on  that  life 
of  ours.  On  your  way  to  France,  read  the  books 
of  Andre  Suares,^  Remy  de  Gourmont's  Prome- 
nades Litteraires,  Andre  Gide's  Pretextes  and 
Nouveaux  Pretextes,  and  Jacques  Riviere's  Etudes, 
which  are  on  the  border  where  criticism  meets 
poetry  herself. 

For  those  who  are  interested  in  the  questions  of 
poetical  technique,  I  think  that  with  Nos  Directions, 
by  H.  Gheon,  the  little  book  by  Vildrac  and  Du- 
hamel  ^  would  be  of  great  profit.  It  shows  what 
the  young  men  of  that  group  regard  as  important  in 
the  form,   according  to  their  present  standards. 


War  has  not  proven,  of  course,  to  be  creative  of 
beautiful  works  of  art.  The  four  poets  whom  I 
shall  name  as  having  written  the  most  remarkable 
songs  during  that  dark  period  did  but  apply  to  a 
new  subject  a  lyrism  and  a  form  which  they  al- 

1  Sur    la    Vie,    Essais,    Portraits,    Trois    Hommes    (Pascal, 
Ibsen,  Dostoievsky),  etc. 

iNotes  sur  la  Technique  poHique    (Figui^re,  Paris). 


128    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

ready  possessed.  About  the  war  itself,  I  expect 
the  only  valuable  and  great  works  will  appear  much 
later  on.  The  Iliad  was  not  composed  under  the 
walls  of  Troy  besieged. 

Shortly  before  Emile  Verhaeren's  death,  in  the 
autumn  of  1916,  the  Mercure  de  France  published 
his  book  of  poems:  Les  Ailes  Rouges  de  la  Guerre. 
Mr.  Joyce  Kilmer  translated  "Cathedral,"  ^  which 
is  among  the  strongest  things  in  the  volume.  I 
quote  from  it: 

He  who  walks  through  the  meadows  of  Champagne 

At  noon  in  Fall,  when  leaves  like  gold  appear, 

Sees  it  draw  near 
Like  some  great  mountain  set  upon  the  plain, 
From  radiant  dawn  until  the  close  of  day, 

Nearer  it  grows 

To  him  who  goes 
Across  the  country.     When  tall  towers  lay 

Their  shadowy  pall 

Upon  his  way, 

He  enters,  where 
The  solid  stone  is  hollowed  deep  by  all 
Its  centuries  of  beauty  and  of  prayer. 

•  ...•.•• 

At  once,  they  set  their  cannon  in  its  way. 

There  is  no  gable  now,  nor  wall 
That  does  not  suffer,  night  and  day, 

As  shot  and  shell  in  crushing  torrents  fall. 

1  It  appeared  in  Mr.  Kilmer's  recent  book,  Main  f^freet  and 
Other  Poems  (Doran,  New  York).  We  quote  it  with  the  kind 
permission  of  the  author  and  publisher. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  129 

The  stricken  tocsin  quivers  through  the  tower; 

The  triple  nave,  the  aspe,  the  lonely  choir 
Are  circled,  hour  by  hour, 

With  thundering  bands  of  fire 
And  Death  is  scattered  broadcast  among  men. 
And  then 

That  which  was  splendid  with  baptismal  grace; 
The  stately  arches  soaring  into  space, 
The  transepts,  columns,  windows  grey  and  gold. 
The  organ,  in  whose  tones  the  ocean  rolled. 
The  crypts,  of  mighty  shades  the  dwelling  places, 
The  Virgin's  gentle  hands,  the  Saints'  pure  faces, 
All,  even  the  pardoning  hands  of  Christ  the  Lord, 
Were  struck  and  broken  by  the  wanton  sword 
Of  sacrilegious  lust. 

O  beauty  slain,  0  glory  in  the  dust! 

Strong  walls  of  faith,  most  basely  overthrown! 

The  crawling  flames,  like  adders  glistening. 

Ate  the  white  fabric  of  this  lovely  thing. 

Now  from  its  soul  arose  a  piteous  moan. 

The  soul  that  always  loved  the  just  and  fair. 

Granite  and  marble  loud  their  woe  confessed, 

The  silver  monstrances  that  Popes  had  blessed. 

The  chalices  and  lamps  and  crosiers  rare 

Were  seared  and  twisted  by  a  flaming  breath; 

The  horror  everywhere  did  range  and  swell, 

The  guardian  Saints  into  this  furnace  fell. 

Their  bitter  tears  and  screams  were  stilled  in  death. 

Around  the  flames  armed  hosts  are  skirmishing, 
The  burning  sun  reflects  the  lurid  scene; 
The  German  army,  fighting  for  its  life, 
Rallies  its  torn  and  terrified  left  wing; 


130    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

And,  as  they  near  this  place 

The  imperial  eagles  see 

Before  them  in  their  flight, 
Here,  in  the  solemn  night, 
The  old  cathedral,  to  the  years  to  be 

Showing,  with  wounded  arms,  their  own  disgrace. 

Paul  Claudel  first  published  Trois  Poemes  de 
guerre,  and  later  Autres  Poemes  durant  la  guerre. 
The  former  have  become  well  known,  especially  the 
first  of  them:  "Tant  que  vous  voudrez,  mon 
general,"  which  seems  to  embody  the  fighting  spirit 
and  the  desire  for  sacrifice  of  the  man  in  the 
trench. 

Frangois  Porche  also  published  two  small  books: 
U Arret  sur  la  Marne  and  Le  Poeme  de  la  Tranchee. 
The  former  relates  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war, 
the  German  attack,  and  the  retreat  until  the  critical 
moment  when  the  French  armies  were  ordered  to 
stop  the  victorious  invader — which  they  did.  Here 
is  that  moment,  told  as  a  marvellous  story  for  chil- 
dren to  come: 

"There  was  once  a  grandfather 
With  white  hair  and  blue  eyes 
A  big  sly  companion 
Who  well  concealed  his  play, 
Who,  clinching  hard  his  jaw 
As  would  an  old  wild  boar. 
Chose  his  observatory 
At  the  foot  of  a  poplar. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  131 

"Had  fifteen  hundred  thousand 
Grandchildren  in  his  sleeve 
All  good  and  living  hammers 
And  he  being  the  handle. 
He  gathered  in  his  hands 
All  the  rivers  and  ways 
Which  cross  and  cut  each  other 
From  the  Meuse  to  the  Oise. 

"The  front  was  flowing  back 
As  an  enormous  tide 
— France  is  falling  to  pieces! 
The  world  stood  terrified. 
Suddenly  he  beckons: 
In  a  sublime  effort 
The  immense  heavy  line 
Stops,  and  faces  the  North. 

*Tt  is  dawn,  Genevieve  ^ 
Is  leading  the  white  herd 
Of  the  mists  which  arise. 
Joan  is  near  the  flag 
Swinging  her  oriflam 
Marked  with  fleur  de  lis. 
The  East  is  red  with  flames. 
Joffre  says:     Go,  my  sons!" 

The  book  of  poems  called  Foi  en  la  France 
was  written  by  Henri  Gheon,  during  his  service  at 
the  front  as  a  physician  of  the  artillery.  Some 
poems  are  hot  with  action.  Others,  which  he  calls 
"discours  lyriques,"  contain  the  following  passages: 
1  Sainte  Genevieve,  guardian  saint  of  Paris. 


132    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

All  France 
(For  the  men  who  belong  to  a  party) 

"The  whole  of  you,  with  your  faults;  for  you  are  not 
a  word,  a  myth,  a  dream;  and  you  are  no  longer  a  God, 
in  spite  of  our  devotion. 

"Yes,  the  fragility  of  the  creature — and  its  force.  A 
human  being,  with  a  body,  a  face,  and  eyes:  it  is  thus 
that  I  wish  to  see  you — and  easily  recognizable  by  every 
one. 

"With  a  long  life  behind  you — and  there  is  every- 
thing in  a  life!  But  in  yours,  France,  already  so  many 
beautiful  sleeping  centuries  .  .  . 

"With  a  long  life  yet  before  you — for  you  have  kept 
your  youth  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "And  of  what  you  have  been,  nothing  to  deny! 
And  nothing  of  what  you  will  be,  0  generous  one! 

"Salute,  face  misted  with  tears,  pure  forehead  marked 
with  agonies,  look  of  faults,  look  of  faith,  mouth  of 
grief,  mouth  of  joy.     O  human  face! 

"Salute,  fallible  heart,  splendid  heart,  woman  with  the 
large  cloak  where  our  discords  used  to  warm  each  other, 
and  where  our  discords  will  unite. 

"Salute,  earth  of  errors,  earth  of  glory!  Prudent 
economist  who  weighs  the  bread  and  the  salt,  improvi- 
dent hand  which  opens  the  closet  to  the  beggar! 

"Salute,  gentle  one!  Salute,  rebel!  Salute,  saint! 
Salute,  warrior!  Salute,  enigma  of  destiny,  phantom 
friend!   .  .  . 

"Now,  reassembled  in  your  sons,  behold  you  in  front 
of  them,  like  a  mother!  And  all  read  in  your  suffering 
what  all  before  had  not  understood." 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  133 

This  is  "On  the  Great  Russian  Retreat" . 

"What  do  I  know  of  you,  profound  Russia,  perpetual 
retreat  of  immense  and  level  horizons — of  wheat,  of 
swamps  and  of  snow;  silver  laughter  of  sounding  birch- 
trees  in  the  heart  of  white  nights,  stammering  of  the  mou- 
jicks  in  the  golden  chapels? 

"What  do  I  know  of  you,  profound  Russia?  Never 
have  I  approached  you  but  in  spirit — only  followed  my 
heart,  dreaming  of  attaining  to  the  poet  in  the  echo  of 
the  translated  words  .  .  .  but  even  the  echo  was  splen- 
did! The  human  metal  resounded  there,  and  one  could 
not  be  mistaken. 


"What  do  I  know  of  you,  profound  Russia,  and  yet  I 
press  on  in  your  suite  as  a  poet  in  Ukraine  with  his  little 
instrument — two  strings  upon  a  sounding  board — as  far 
as  destiny  wishes  to  lead  you,  upon  the  road  of  your 
calvary.  .  .  . 

"A  few  notes,  always  the  same;  hardly  a  song,  but 
everything  is  said:  Your  distress  of  ancient  times  and 
which  will  surpass  our  times,  your  tireless  plaint,  nour- 
ished by  itself,  and  to  which  God  will  surrender." 


Can  we  now  gaze  into  the  future? 

There  is  no  possible  comparison  with  other 
epochs.  All  currents  are  combining  and  crossing 
each  other,  all  tendencies  have  a  chance  to  find  tlieir 
way.  Owing  to  the  wide  possibilities  of  interna- 
tional communication  and  translation,  and  to  the 
world-influences  which  are  resulting  from  it,  think- 


134    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

ers  and  artists  will  dedicate  their  work,  more  and 
more,  to  the  remote  and  unknown  admirers  who  are 
waiting  for  them  all  over  the  earth,  rather  than  to  a 
limited  surrounding  due  to  mere  circumstances. 
This  promises  a  freer  expansion  of  sincerity,  a 
lesser  submission  to  local  limitations.  It  is  a  pow- 
erful source  of  strength  and  stimulation  to  create, 
to  feel  that  spontaneous,  invisible  communion  which 
circulates  now  between  young  men  of  all  countries. 
It  is  as  if  the  world,  at  the  issue  of  this  war,  would 
start  from  a  common  point  and  live  on  with  common 
terms. 

Are  we  to  see  a  long  period  of  barren  incertitude, 
during  the  time  of  reconstruction,  and  will  all  ener- 
gies be  devoted  to  material  work?  What  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe  is  that  material  enterprise  itself 
will  be  transformed  in  its  spirit,  and  might  prove 
as  inspiring  as  any  other  thing  involving  energy 
and  passion.  I  see  an  infinite  broadening  of  the 
artist's  domain;  the  way  has  already  been  shown  by 
those  whom  I  called  our  prophets.  And  I  see  a 
growing  and  more  spontaneous  interpenetration  of 
science,  ethics  and  art,  working  combined  in  the 
mind  of  new  men.  I  suppose  that  literary  work 
will  resume  its  normal,  logical  development,  start- 
ing at  the  point  where  it  had  stopped  in  July,  1914. 
But  the  men  having  grown  different,  a  deep  revolu- 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  135 

tion  will  be  felt  to  have  taken  place  within  every 
particular  work. 

For  these  past  three  years,  art  and  literature  were 
paralyzed.  But  there  will  be  some  triumphant 
awakening.  After  the  strain  of  disciplined  solidar- 
ity, a  tremendous  reaction  of  free  expression  will 
break  out,  just  as  a  reaction  of  liberalism  will  suc- 
ceed the  temporary  prussianization"  which  the 
young  men  voluntarily  support.  This  does  not 
mean  anarchy,  on  the  contrary.^  I  think  that  after 
man's  destructive  power,  man's  power  of  creation 
will  reach  to  an  extent  in  which  but  few  believe 
today. 


Never  was  interest  in  music  more  developed  in 
France  than  during  the  few  years  which  preceded 
the  war.  This  came  after  a  long  period  of  stag- 
nation in  public  taste,  when  no  other  alternative 
existed  but  academic  poverty  or  hysterico-fashion- 
able  entliusiasms  for  "virtuosi"  who  usurped  the 
place  of  the  work  they  were  supposed  to  serve.  No 
art  had  been  more  abandoned.  None  has  been 
more  ardently  reviving.  Minds  of  all  sorts,  turned 
toward  interests  of  all  kinds,  now  unite  in  their  love 
for  music.     Men  of  science,  of  letters,  of  tradition 

iSee  P6guy's  last  lines  in  Part  I. 


136    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

and  of  revolution,  join  in  that  common  worship. 
Moreover,  the  great  musicians  of  today  are  men  of 
wide  culture  who  live  with  tlie  elite  of  their  time. 
Thus,  writing  and  criticism  about  music  has  been 
able  to  give  us  the  books  of  Romain  Rolland,  of 
Riviere,  of  Suares  and  this  book  of  G.  Jean-Aubry,^ 
which  is  to  be  recommended  to  any  one  who  wants 
a  complete  and  intelligent  commentary  on  the  pres- 
ent musical  treasure  of  France.  Together  with  the 
new  musical  activity  there  was  a  new  comprehen- 
sion of  the  past,  namely,  of  French  music  from  the 
16th,  17th,  and  18th  centuries. 

For  a  long  time,  it  had  been  believed  that  French 
composers  were  only  capable  of  small,  graceful, 
light  constructions.  "Are  we  going  at  last  to  under- 
stand," says  Jean-Aubry,  "the  true  grandeur  and 
universal  value  of  a  period  which  saw  Vincent 
d'Indy's  symphonic  work,  Debussy's  orchestral 
compositions,  Roussel's  'Evocations,'  Florent 
Schmitt's  Psalm  and  Quintette,  Ravel's  'Daphnis  et 
Chloe,'  Roger  Ducasse's  'Suite  Frangaise,'  and 
which  has  given  to  the  theatre  Telleas  et  Meli- 
sande,'  'Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue,'  and  'Penelope'?" 

There  also  foreign  influences  had  brought  stimu- 
lating  and    encouraging    example.     One    country 

i"La  Musique  fran?aise  d'aujourd'hui."  (Perrin,  pub- 
lisher, Paris.) 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  137 

was,  above  all,  showing  the  way:  it  was  Russia. 
Spain  was  giving,  parallel  to  ours,  a  splendid  gener- 
ation of  young  composers;  one  of  them  was  Grana- 
dos,  killed  in  the  torpedoing  of  the  Sussex.  From 
Germany  we  had  had  the  gigantic  influence  of 
Wagner,  which  had  known  its  climax  some  twenty 
years  ago. 

Some  of  our  masters — G.  Faure,  V.  d'Indy,  after 
great  Cesar  Franck,  and  Saint-Saens,  are  widely 
known  already.  The  works  of  other  elders,  Cha- 
brier,  Chausson,  Duparc,  Magnard  (who  was  killed 
in  1914  in  defending  his  own  house  against  the 
invaders),  have  not  yet  known  all  the  recognition 
which  time  will  accord  to  their  names. 

The  greatest  living  figure  in  French  music, 
Claude  Debussy,  is  also  most  representative  of 
French  genius.  He  is  sensuous,  delicate,  intelli- 
gent, refined  above  all,  and  he  conceals  his  actual 
greatness  and  might  under  his  qualities  of  grace  and 
reserve,  instead  of  making  a  tumultuous  and 
colossal  display  of  them.  In  age  and  sources  of  in- 
spiration Debussy  belongs  to  the  "Symbolist" 
period  and,  as  a  fact,  he  chose  his  friends,  when  a 
young  man,  among  that  group  which  included 
Maeterlinck,  Louys,  Regnier,  Mallarme,  Gide. 
But  by  his  production  he  decidedly  is  a  precursor 
and    a    master    of    our    present    tendencies.     He 


138    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

worked  with  the  terminating  XlXth  century,  but 
his  work  was  addressed  to  the  20th  century.  His 
career  is  a  noble  example  of  dignity  and  aloof- 
ness from  easy  and  clamorous  success.  But  now 
his  importance  is  as  widely  acknowledged  as  at 
first  it  had  been  denied.  Not  only  is  "Pelleas"  an 
original  and  pure  masterpiece,  not  only  is  the 
"Prelude  a  I'Apres-Midi  d'un  Faune"  a  rarity, 
but  Debussy's  influence  covers  all  the  present  epoch 
and  is  to  be  felt  in  the  work  of  most  contemporary 
composers.^ 

Other  masters  are  Paul  Dukas,  the  author  of 
"Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue"  and  of  "UApprenti 
Sorcier,"  and  his  work  is  solid,  serene,  healthy. 
Maurice  Ravel,  whose  clear,  ironical,  ingenious  in- 
spiration gives  him  a  place  which  is  apart.  His 
"Sonatine,"  his  "Pavane  pour  une  infante  defunte" 
and  the  suite  of  "Ma  mere  I'Oye"  (Mother  Goose) 
are  now  famous.  Florent  Schmitt,  who  composed 
a  tragedy  of  "Salome,"  a  Quintette,  a  Psalm,  and 
many  other  works  of  serious,  sensible  and  skilful 
character.  Deodat  de  Severac,  who  comes  from 
Southern  France  and  whose  work  is  devoted  to  the 
aspects  of  nature,  of  which  they  give  a  large,  al- 

1  Other  principal  works  of  Debussy  are:  La  Mer,  the  Noc- 
turnes, the  pieces  written  on  Verlaine's,  Baudelaire's  and 
Pierre  Louys'  poems,  and  his  famous  pieces  for  the  piano. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  139 

most  vegetally  powerful  interpretation.  Erik 
Satie,  a  humourist  and  also  a  clever  technician,  who 
had  an  intuition  ol  the  new  tenden-cies  in  music 
perhaps  before  Debussy  himself. 

According  to  the  high  standards  of  musical  art  in 
America,  it  may  be  expected  that  the  works  of  these 
composers  will  be  executed  more  and  more  in  this 
country;  French  music  was  usually  represented  by 
the  less  significant  light  operas  when  Italian  and 
German  music  was  known  through  masterpieces. 
Which  is  unfair,  but  of  course  it  was  our  own  fault, 
since  we  ourselves  ignored  for  a  long  time  what 
riches  were  ours.  Since  last  year,  a  great  step  has 
been  made  by  the  sending  of  some  remarkable  in- 
terpreters from  Paris  to  this  country,  like  Casadesus 
and  his  "ancient  instruments,"  Joseph  Bonnet,  the 
organist,  Pierre  Monteux,  who  directed  the  orches- 
tra in  the  Metropolitan  Opera-house,  Mrs.  Gills,  and 
others.  Carlos  Salzedo  for  the  last  two  years  has 
been  fighting  for  the  cause  of  French  modern  music 
with  his  excellent  "Trio  de  Lutece."  E.  Varese 
directed  a  performance  of  Berlioz'  Requiem. 

The  parallel  revival  and  development  of  musical 
interest  and  of  interest  in  physical  culture  has  log- 
ically brought  us  to  a  revival  of  dancing  as  a  high 
form    of    art.     We    had    this    renewal    through 


140    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

three  principal  sources  of  influence.  The  first 
was  Isadora  Duncan.  Another  was  the  Rus- 
sian Ballet,  a  tremendous  inspiration  to  all  young 
artists  in  the  four  years  before  the  war.  The 
third  was  Jaques-Dalcroze's  Eurythmics,  which  had 
a  deep  influence  on  those  who  were  practising  them, 
and  which  stood,  as  it  were,  at  the  very  converging 
point  of  music,  dance  and  physical  culture. 

So  many  admirable  treatises  have  been  written 
on  the  arts  of  painting,  sculpture  and  architecture  in 
France  and  their  more  modern  developments  that 
they  need  not  be  dwelt  on  here.  There  has  long 
been  an  interchange  between  France  and  America 
with  respect  to  painting  especially,  and  Monet, 
Manet,  Cezanne,  Gauguin,  Degas,  Puvis  de  Chav- 
annes — to  mention  but  a  few — are  as  highly  appre- 
ciated here  as  say  Sargent,  Whistler  and  Mary 
Cassatt  are  there. ^  This  interchange  of  art  and 
artists  may  well  be  expected  to  increase  after  the 
war,  and  parenthetically  it  may  be  said  that  the 
counsels  of  Whitney  Warren  and  other  American 
architects  will  be  profoundly  appreciated  when  the 
work  of  rebuilding  ravaged  France  is  taken  in  hand. 

Our  wealth  of  today  is  little  compared  to  that  of 

1  The  presence  and  success  of  H.  Caro-Delvaille  in  Amer- 
ica is  another  link  of  that  chain. 


LITERARY  INTERCHANGE  141 

tomorrow.  I  wonder  whether  some  people  are  not 
hiding  their  heads,  as  the  ostrich  does,  when  they 
say  that  life  is  today  without  spiritual  inspiration, 
that  art  is  dying,  that  art  is  dead.  And  they  are 
kind  enough  to  shed  tears  about  it.  Indeed  they 
have  eyes  and  they  see  not,  they  have  ears  and  they 
hear  not.  Of  our  artistic  vitality  only  ignorants  or 
pan-Germanists  can  be  in  doubt. 

I  have  tried  in  this  part  of  the  present  book  to 
lead  a  troop  of  friendly  visitors  through  some  new 
alleys  of  tlie  garden  of  France.  Alleys  newly 
planted  with  trees  multifarious,  robust  or  delicate. 
Maybe  the  readers  expected  more  or  something  else. 
Then  I  ask  from  them  only  one  thing:  let  them 
reserve  their  conclusions  until  they  find  a  better 
guide,  and  for  their  disappointment  let  them  accuse 
me  only. 


V 
CONCLUSIONS 

History  of  mutual  knowledge.  False  ideas  about  each 
other.  Principle  of  our  exchanges.  France's  experience  and 
America's  methods.  Common  task  in  the  organization  of 
peace.  The  two  nations  who  did  most  work  unselfishly  for  the 
world.  Psychology  of  our  understanding.  Individual  com- 
radeship as  a  basis  for  our  relations.     Responsibilities. 

"Make  great  persons.     The  rest  will  follow." 

— Whitman. 

The  Franco-American  alliance  is  not  a  mere  tem- 
porary co-operation  for  one  limited  purpose — this 
war.  I  believe  that  it  is  involved  in  the  very  struc- 
ture and  existence  of  the  two  countries.  If  an  old, 
long-tried  understanding  has  ever  existed  between 
two  natijns,  assuredly  we  are  those  two.  And  if 
the  word  "alliance"  has  a  human  sense,  besides  its 
diplomatic  one,  assuredly  it  is  so  in  the  case  of 
our  relations.  When  friendship  takes  the  form  of 
such  identity  of  ideals,  and  results  in  such  a  com- 
mon sacrifice  to  a  common  cause,  we  may  say  that 
our  alliance,  if  limited  to  circumspect  interpreta- 
tion by  Foreign  Offices,  vividly  exists  in  the  mind, 

not  to  say  the  heart,  of  every  American  and  every 

142 


CONCLUSIONS  143 

Frenchman.  There  is  no  treaty  which  binds  us. 
No  parchment  with  red  seal  obliges  us  to  love  each 
other.  But  when  compared  with  certain  political 
constructions  which  looked  so  proud  and  solemn, 
but  which  have  gone  to  pieces  (the  Triple  Alliance 
for  instance),  this  vitality  of  our  old  union,  unwrit- 
ten though  it  be,  is  one  of  tlie  greatest  victories  ever 
won  by  the  Spirit  over  the  Letter. 

We  all  know  when  it  started.  Our  treaty  in 
1778  was  a  peculiar  and  strange  kind  of  treaty. 
France  gave  recognition  and  help  to  the  young  Re- 
public, and  asked  for  nothing  in  return.  If  you 
read  Ambassador  Jusserand's  book  on  that  first 
alliance  of  ours,  you  will  see  that  the  leading  im- 
pulses of  the  French  who  went  to  America,  young 
LaFayette  to  begin  with,  were  passionate  love  for 
liberty,  and  an  irresistible  moral  urge  to  help  those 
who  were  fighting  for  it.  In  fact,  the  Americans 
were  realizing  in  advance  what  we  only  dreamt  of 
at  that  time.  In  the  same  spirit  the  French  fought 
for  Greek  freedom  in  1820  and  for  Italy  later. 
The  French  expedition  was  the  most  important  sent 
by  France  beyond  the  seas  since  the  time  of  die 
Crusades.  And  was  it  not  a  Crusade  in  a  new 
form? 

For  a  long  time,  in  spite  of  parallel  experiences 
in  republican  life,  France  and  America  were  too 


144    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

distant  from  each  other,  and  the  material  conditions 
too  absolutely  different  for  our  mutual  understand- 
ing to  be  other  than  abstract  and  sentimental.  All 
definite  ideas  which  we  had  about  each  other  were 
more  or  less  inaccurate,  if  not  comically  fantastic. 
"It  is  difficult,"  said  Abbe  Robin,  quoted  by  Mr. 
Jusserand,  "to  imagine  the  idea  Americans  enter- 
tained about  the  French  before  the  war  (of  Inde- 
pendence) .  They  considered  them  as  groaning  un- 
der the  yoke  of  despotism,  a  prey  to  superstition  and 
prejudices,  almost  idolatrous  in  their  religion,  and 
as  a  kind  of  light,  brittle,  queer-shapen  mechanism, 
only  busy  frizzling  their  hair  and  painting  their 
faces,  without  faith  or  morals."  On  the  other  hand, 
for  years  the  popular  mind  of  France  could  not 
imagine  the  American  otherwise  than  in  Colonel 
Cody's  costume,  drawing  revolvers  from  his 
breeches  in  order  to  shoot  flies  against  the  wall  or 
uncork  bottles  of  whiskey. 

For  many  people,  until  1914,  the  French  had 
been  personified  by  the  fussy,  nervous  gentleman 
who  wore  a  red  ribbon  in  his  buttonhole,  talked  with 
excessive  gestures,  knew  nothing  about  foreign 
countries,  and  was  afraid  of  a  draught.  French- 
men knew  little  more  about  Americans,  when  we 
expected  the  modem  American  to  be  a  milliardaire 
pork-dealer,  despising  literature,  and  presenting  his 


CONCLUSIONS  145 

wife  with  gilded  grand  pianos,  but  personally  en- 
joying the  talking-machine  better. 

Those  images  are  rapidly  vanishing.  But  if 
present  impressions  of  each  other  are  more  true  to 
life,  I  wonder  if  they  are  quite  so?  Only  the  col- 
lective, national  action  of  America  has  yet  become 
known  by  us,  not  the  silent,  personal  side  of  this 
recent  evolution  of  yours.  Only  the  apparently 
miraculous  virtues  of  France  have  recently  been 
revealed  and  talked  about,  and  she  now  appears 
like  a  sort  of  Joan  of  Arc  above  the  clouds — a 
mystic  image  which  perhaps  is  not  false,  but  which 
is  incomplete,  for  there  is  a  living,  toiling,  thinking 
country  behind  that  cloud. 

From  now  on,  the  young  men  and  women  of 
both  sides  have  to  look  each  other  straight  in  the 
eyes.  The  boy  of  whom  I  tried  to  give  a  sketch  in 
the  first  part  of  this  book,  and  the  boy  who  has 
crossed  the  sea  to  fight  side  by  side  with -him,  are 
about  to  give  to  the  alliance  its  definite  meaning. 
Then  will  Whitman's  generous  prophecy  of  1871 
come  true : 

"Star  crucified!   .  .  . 

Star  panting  o'er  a  land  of  death — heroic  land! 

Strange,  passionate,  mocking,  frivolous  land. 

...  0  Star!     O  ship  of  France,  beat  back  and  baffled 

long! 
Bear  up,  0  smitten  orb!     0  ship,  continue  on! 


146    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

"Sure,  as  the  ship  of  all,  the  Earth  itself, 
Product  of  deathly  fire  and  turbulent  chaos, 
Forth  from  its  spasms  of  fury  and  its  poisons. 
Issuing  at  last  in  perfect  power  and  beauty, 
Onward,  beneath  the  sun,  following  its  course, 
So  thee,  0  ship  of  France! 

"Finish'd  the  days,  the  clouds  dispell'd. 

The  travail  o'er,  the  long-sought  extrication. 

When  lo!  reborn,  high  o'er  the  European  world, 

(In  gladness,   answering  thence,  as  face  afar  to  face, 

reflecting  ours,  Columbia,) 
Again  thy  star,  0  France — fair,  lustrous  star, 
In  heavenly  peace,  clearer,  more  bright  than  ever, 
Shall  beam  immortal." 

It  seems  to  me  that,  starting  from  very  remote 
points,  and  living  very  different  lives,  we  arrive 
now  at  a  moment  when  our  directions  rapidly  con- 
verge. In  the  space  of  one  generation  we  shall  see 
American  and  French  conditions  of  life  nearer  to 
each  other  than  at  any  period  of  history,  especially 
with  respect  to  moral,  cultural  and  political  condi- 
tions. 

Problems  which  are  now  before  the  conscience  of 
America's  young  men  are  very  much  like  those 
which  made  our  own  younger  years  so  fraught  with 
anxiety.  There  are  matters  in  which  mankind's 
fate  is  implicated  and  our  thinkers,  on  both  sides, 
are  facing  them.  Ours  is  a  common  task  in  the 
organization  of  peace.     Ours  are  the  two  nations 


CONCLUSIONS  147 

who  have  worked  most  unselfishly  for  the  world; 
and  this  is  a  matter  not  only  of  pride  for  us,  but 
above  all  of  responsibility. 

I  had  an  intuition  of  all  this  when  I  decided  to 
come  to  America,  on  a  mission  of  which  this  book 
is  the  condensed  expression.  When  I  had  lived 
among  the  Americans  for  a  time  they  made  me 
realize  that  my  intuition  was  right.  But  the  results 
of  my  observations  have  gone  far  beyond  what  I 
expected,  though  in  the  expected  sense.  Never 
shall  I  be  able  to  acknowledge  what  encouragement 
and  strengthening  of  my  beliefs  has  been  given  to 
me  by  all  those  who  have  received  me  in  this  coun- 
try. Their  desire  to  Icnow  more  about  France  was 
not  less  than  my  own  desire  to  have  her  better 
known.  Now  it  is  becoming  every  one's  task  in 
both  nations  to  stimulate  the  exchange  of  informa- 
tion, to  choose  among  it,  and  thus  to  develop  the 
relations  which  will  result  from  it.  We  have  to 
welcome  any  form  of  co-operation  and  exchange, 
moral  or  material,  official  or  private.  But  there  is 
one  form  of  exchange  in  which  I  believe  most:  it 
is  that  of  individuals.  The  personal  meeting  of 
elements  from  both  countries  having  corresponding 
interests,  and  especially  the  individual  comrade- 
ship that  can  be  developed  between  young  men  and 
women  from  France  and  from  America  must  be 


148    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

encouraged  by  every  means.  Only  those  relations 
are  active  and  flexible  enough  for  the  complexity  of 
the  new  conditions.  We  admire  the  work  accom- 
plished by  societies  and  collective  organizations,^ 
because  its  best  result  is  the  extension  of  oppor- 
tunities for  individuals  to  come  in  touch  with  each 
other.  The  best  and  most  effective  part  of  our 
knowledge  we  owe  not  to  papers  or  public  meet- 
ings, but  to  long  and  direct  conversations  with  those 
few  specially  qualified  to  inform  us  about  what  we 
are  eager  to  learn. 

Not  the  least  important  influence  in  the  mutual 
relation  and  formation  of  Young  France  and 
New  America  is  that  development  of  sport,  which 
had  its  revival  in  France  about  twenty  years  ago, 
and  was  in  full  process  of  expansion  just  before  this 
crisis.  The  last  great  sporting  manifestation  was 
when  the  Marquis  de  Polignac  organized  his  "Col- 
lege d' Athletes"  in  Rheims,  for  the  practice  of 
Lieutenant  Hebert's  famous  "natural  method." 
France  was  rapidly  working  toward  a  physical 

1  In  the  first  rank  of  these  organizations  comes  the 
"Federation  de  I'Alliance  fran^aise  aux  Etats-Unis  et  au 
Canada,"  which  is  known  by  all  the  friends  of  France.  Thanks 
to  the  remarkable  activity  of  some  of  its  members,  and  first 
of  all  Mr.  Delamarre,  general  secretary  of  the  Federation,  it 
has,  in  a  few  years,  more  than  doubled  the  number  of  its 
groups  in  this  country. 


CONCLUSIONS  149 

transformation  of  the  race.  All  of  us  had  train- 
ing in  some  sport  or  another.  America  need  not  be 
told  that  sport  brings  a  morality  of  its  own,  a  sense 
of  honour  and  of  physical  and  moral  cleanness,  of 
actual  and  not  illusory  value  in  the  development  of 
men.  The  relations  of  men  with  women,  and  the 
education  of  women  have  been  transformed  in 
France  since  what  I  may  call  the  generalization  of 
sport.  But  one  has  to  come  in  personal  touch  with 
the  younger  elements  of  the  country  to  perceive  this 
change,  whose  consequences  I  regard  as  of  first-rate 
importance. 

More  and  more  we  are  going  to  see  morals  be- 
coming "a  branch  of  aesthetics."  ^  This  formula, 
which  would  have  scared  the  moralists  of  the  Vic- 
torian epoch,  does  not  even  surprise  to-day,  and  I 
know  that  thousands  of  young  men  and  women  are 
applying  it,  consciously  or  not.  Combined  with  an 
increased  consciousness  in  his  destiny,  man  has  de- 
veloped a  more  powerful  sense  of  the  part  he  can 
play  in  it. 

We  live  in  a  feverish  and  burning  period,  when 
the  world  has  become  a  furnace,  and  all  human 
values  are  fused  like  melting  metal.     And  we  feel 

1  Andrd  Gide. 


150    YOUNG  FRANCE  AND  NEW  AMERICA 

that  now  is  the  right  time  to  forge  and  to  hammer — 
to  forge  and  to  coin  here  and  now  the  figure  and 
form  of  our  alliance. 

So,  when  the  crisis  is  past  and  when  the  world 
grows  cold  again,  we  shall  find  this  union  of  ours 
fastened  and  riveted  in  such  a  manner  that  it  may 
never  be  destroyed. 

Easthampton,  August  31,  1917. 


INDEX 


Albert  I,  44,  114 
Amiel    (D.),  6f 
Andler,  ^'9 
Arcos,  1-^3 

Baldwin   (J.  M.),  ^  f ,  100 

Barres,  6,  8,  -25 

Baudelaire,  93 

Bazalgette,   116 

Bergson,   18,  100 

Berlioz,   139 

Bithcll,  111 

Bonnet,   139 

Brooks   (Van  Wyck),  42 

Butler  (S.),  93 

Bynner   (Witter),  18,  40,  124 

Caro-Delvaille,    140 
Casadesus,  139 
Cassatt   (M.),  140 
Cezanne,  140 
Chabrier,  13  f 
Chausson,  13  f 
Cheran,  33 

Claudel,  2  f ,  105,  130 
Cody,  144 
Cooper   (F.),  93 
Copeau  (J.)>  126 

Daudet,  11  f 

Debussy,  136,  13  f,  138,  139 

Degas,  140 

Delamarre,   148 

Dickens,  8 

Dostoievsky,  8 

Ducasse  (R.).  136 


Duharael,  123,  12  f 
Dukas    (P.),   138 
Dumas   (Gel.),  62 
Duncan    (I.),  140 
Duparc,  13  f 

Eliot  (Prof.),  9f 
EUwood  (Prof.),  100 

Fabulet,  98 
Fargue,  106 
Farre,  13  f 
Flambert,   11  f 
France  (A.),  6,  8,  123 
Franck   (C),  13  f 
Franck    (H.),  21-26 
Franklin,  60 
Fort   (P.),  106,  126 

Gauguin,  140 

Gide  (A.),  106,  12  f,  13  f,  149 

Gills,  139 

Gheon,  106,  12  f,   131 

Gourmont,  12  f 

Granados,  13  f 

Grandgent  (Prof.),  9f 

Hale   (S.),  6f 
Hamp,  66,  73-86 
Harte  (Bret),  93 
Havet   (M.),  122 
Hawthorne,  93 
Hebert,  148 
Herv^,  56 
Herwcgh,  92 
Humi^res   (d'),  98 


ISI 


152  INDEX 

Indy  (d'),  136,  13  f 

Jammes,  103,  104 
Jaques-Dalcroze,  140 
Jean-Aubry,  136 
Jusserand,  41,  61,  143,  144 

Kilmer,  111,  128 
Kipling,  8 

La  Fontaine,  103 
Larbaud,  121 
Ledoux    (L.),  124 
Lindsay,   124,   129 
Lippmann,  6 
Longfellow,  93 
Louijs,  13  f 
LoweU  (A.),  9  f,  104,  124 

Maeterlinck,   13  f 
Magnard,   13  f 
Mallarme,  93,  102,  13  f 
Manet,  140 
Masters   (E.  L.),  124 
Monet,  140 
Monteux,  139 
Mor^as,  103 

Naudin  (B.),  32 
Noailles     (Comtesse    M.    de), 
105 

Oppenheim  (J.)j  124 

Peguy,   9,   15-20,  26,   106,   126 

Pershing,  62 

Poe,  8,  93,  102,  125 

Polignac,   148 

Porche,  123,  130 

Pribitchevitch,  38 

Puvis  de  Chavannes,  140 


Ravel,  136,  138 

R^gnier  (H.  de),  103,  13  f 

Rimbaud,   102 

Riviere   (J.),  106,  12  f,  136 

Robin,    144 

Robinson   (E.   A.),  124 

Rolland    (R.),  15,  136 

Remains,  121 

Roussel   (A.),  136 

Saint-Saens,  13  f 
Salzedo,  139 
Samain  (A.),  103 
Sargent,   140 
Satie,   139 

Schlumberger   (J.),  106 
Schmitt    (F.),   136,   138 
Seton-Watson,  8  f 
S^verac   (D.  de),  138 
Spire    (A.),  106 
Steed  (H.  W.),  8f 
Strettel   (A.),  HI 
Suar^s   (A.),  106,  12  f,  136 
Symons  (A.),  HI 

Tardien,  53 
Taylor  (D.),  6f 
Thoreau,  93 
Tolstoi,  8 
Torrence  (R.),  124 
Turgot,  59 
Turgueniev,  11  f 

Van  Rysselbergh,  10  f 
Varese   (E.),  139 
Verhaeren,  1,  106-116,  128 
Viel^-GrifBn,  103 
Vildrac,  113,  118-121,  12  f 

Wagner,  13  f 
Warren    (W.),   140 
Wigmore    (Prof.),  9f 


INDEX  153 

Wilson    (W.),  3f,  44,  47,  49,      Whitman,    8,    2  f ,    30,   40,    93, 

60,  61  116,    125,   142,   145 

Whistler,  140  Wbittier,  93 


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